Haines - Myth and Facts Brunelleschis Cupola

MYTH AND MANAGEMENT IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF BRUNELLESCHI'S CUPOLA
Author(s): MARGARET HAINES

Source: I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance , 2011-2012, Vol. 14/15 (2011-2012), pp.
47-101
Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of Villa I Tatti, The Harvard
Center for Italian Renaissance Studies
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MYTH AND MANAGEMENT
IN THE CONSTRUCTION
OF BRUNELLESCHI'S CUPOLA
MARGARET HAINES
The FilippoFilippo
cupolaBrunelleschi
Brunelleschifrom 1420 toMaria
of Santa 1436,from
sharesdelwith
1420other extra-
Fiore, to 1436, erected shares under with the other direction extra- of
ordinary architectural monuments a tendency to generate
myths about its realization. A noble earlier example of this phenomen-
on is the great Justinianic basilica of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople
(532-537), which inspired its own legends elaborated over centuries,
despite repeated collapses of the dome, the first occurring only twenty
years after its construction.1 Brunelleschi's dome, still standing proud
over Florence, possesses all the myth-attracting ingredients: mammoth
size, striking form, assertive color, axial position in the city that
spawned the Renaissance of the visual arts (Fig. 1). Above all, however,
the structure's mystique derives from the fact that its double-shelled
octagonal cloister vault was erected according to the architect's revolu-
tionary invention, without the supporting armature employed to sus-
tain soaring Gothic vaults (including those of the nave and crossing
arms of the Florentine cathedral itself) until their keystones were in
place. The cupola was an astonishing technical accomplishment, one
that still inspires awe in those who visit it.
But myth goes a step beyond the appreciation of brilliant engineer-
ing. In the case of the Florentine dome a compelling story was spun
around the figure of the structure's inventor and the circumstances
of its realization, constructing a heroic epic in which the stature of
the protagonist is necessarily commensurate with the monument cre-
ated. The vault of the dome had scarcely been closed around its central
1 Already in the time of Justinian the court historian Procopius glorified the emperor's
contributions to its complex structural solutions, and legends that sedimented in the ninth -
or tenth-century Diegesis continued to weave fantastic tales around the astounding structure.
See especially Mango 1992, 41-56, as well as Mango 1986, 72-78, 96-102, and Ousterhout
1999, 40-41, 50.
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MARGARET HAINES
oculus in 1436 when Leon Battista Alberti, hailing the outstanding ar-
tists he found in Florence, where he had come in the entourage of Pope
Eugenius IV, alluded to both mythic components in the introduction to
his treatise On Painting-. "Who could ever be hard or envious enough
to fail to praise Pippo the architect on seeing here such a large struc-
ture, rising above the skies, ample to cover with its shadow all the Tus-
can people, and constructed without the aid of centering or great quan-
tity of wood?"2 This passage seems to insinuate by disclaimer that the
ingenious structure of the massive cupola embodies the triumph of its
inventor in the face of invidious episodes. The architect's heroism is
amplified by antagonism.
Such would be the approach to the story of Brunelleschi's life as
written decades later by Antonio di Tuccio Manetti, who claimed to
have put down information gleaned from the protagonist himself be-
fore his death in 1446.3 It is a partisan account of the architect's career
which, with all its exaggerations and omissions, was the principal
source for Giorgio Vasari's incomparably influential pages on the con-
struction of the cupola in his Lives of the Artists.4 What is particularly
interesting in the present context is the fact that Manetti had recourse
to the archives of the cathedral's board of works, the Opera of Santa
Maria del Fiore, in order to substantiate his statements. That is, admin-
istrative documents were adduced to lend credence to versions of
events that the author had heard from Brunelleschi or other period wit-
nesses. A famous example, long unmasked by modern scholars, is the
citation of the text of two payments made in 1419 to Brunelleschi and
to his proverbial rival, Lorenzo Ghiberti, for competition models for
the cupola. Lorenzo receives nearly six times as much as Filippo for ex-
penses incurred that were, in Manetti's words, "thrown away" because
useless.5 But a closer look at the documentation reveals that the pay-
2 English translation from Hyman 1974, 26. On the date and precedence of the Italian
redaction of Alberti's treatise, see Bertolini 2000, 181-210.
3 Giuliano Tanturli discusses the nature of Manetti's account and its sources and pro-
poses a dating of 1475-80 in his commentary to the standard edition of Domenico De Robertis:
Manetti 1976, xxiv-xxxv.
4 Vasari 1971, 3:148-180. For Vasari's "pirating" of Manetti's Life , see Rubin 1995, 169,
173-74. It should be noted that, although Vasari fully exploits Ghiberti's Commentari in other
matters, in the case of the cupola the self-aggrandizing affirmations of that source are brushed
aside in favor of Manetti's account with its heroizing of Filippo.
5 Manetti transcribed complete entries from the now lost account book of the treasurer,
Migliore di Tommaso, whose text cited the relative allocations of funds made by the operai in
48

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MYTH AND MANAGEMENT
ment to Brunelleschi regards only the finishing wood components of his

last, large-scale model and is excerpted from a two-year-long campaign
of competition projects, during which the Opera's investments for mod-
els were substantially greater and more diversified. The documentary
texts were snatched from their archival context and brandished by a
biographer who counted upon the Florentine readers' penchant for his-
torical records and respect for the institutions that produced them.6
Selective documentation, if on an expanding scale, has continued to
characterize the historiography of the Florentine cathedral. The archi-
val sources on the cupola have been the subject of two very dissimilar
editions: the corpus assembled by the archivist Cesare Guasti in 1857
with the purpose of providing an objective basis for renewed studies of
the cathedral, and the documentary appendix provided by the architec-
tural historian, Howard Saalman, as a support tool for his 1980 mono-
graph on Brunelleschi's cupola. The former has remained almost the
sole locus of consultation in the last 150 years, perhaps because the lat-
ter presents philological defects and is arbitrarily organized in fragmen-
ted categories.7 Guasti's work conforms to the practices of nineteenth-
century erudition, with its emphasis on personal histories, models, and
prestigious, institutional documents, and although it does not ignore
matters of worksite practices and supplies, the choice of examples con-
stitutes the tip of the iceberg of the actual archival records. Meanwhile,
in scholarly works and popular literature alike, the time-honored stor-
ies of the heroic cupola effort continue to be woven into the web of
known documentation, with little attempt to distinguish the relative
authority of the sources.8 Saalman himself, misreading a payment to
August 1419, recorded in two extant codices of the Archivio dell'Opera di Santa Maria del
Fiore (henceforth AOSMF), Stanziamenti II-4-8, cc. 51vc and 51vd, and Deliberazioni II- 1-
76, cc. 47vf and 48a, both published in Guasti 1857, docs. 20 and 30. See Manetti 1976, 91.
6 Another actively documented account of the building of the cupola of Santa Maria del
Fiore is Baldinucci's Life of Brunelleschi: Baldinucci 1812, 153-288, esp. 187-232. The ac-
count leans heavily on the Life, subsequendy recognized as the work of Antonio Manetti, that
is published in the same volume; at the same time it presents numerous new transcriptions of
sources from the Opera archive. This work was left unfinished by Filippo Baldinucci at the
time if his death in 1697 and was completed by his son Francesco Saverio, as stated in the pre-
amble: see also Bruno Santi's commentary in the edition in Zibaldone baldinucciano 1980,
2:525-527.
7 Guasti 1857; Saalman 1980. An exception to the neglect of Saalman's monograph in

studies by Italian scholars is represented by the contributions of Luca Giorgi; see, for example,
Giorgi and Matracchi 2006, 277-324.
8 See, for example, the interchangeable use of Manetti' s account and archival sources in
49
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MARGARET HAINES
a kilnman for bricks, provides a telling example of the "discovery" of a

document to prove Manetti's unlikely story that Brunelleschi had a
kitchen installed in the dome's lofty worksite to dissuade workers from
descending for lunch.9
The textual database, The Years of the Cupola, reaches beyond the
scope of these previous documentary editions, with its aim to embrace
the complete administrative documentation extant in the archive of the
cathedral board of works, the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, for the
two decades (1417-1436) that saw the planning and construction of the
great dome. Begun in 1994 as a pilot project commissioned by the ca-
thedral Opera, it has developed into a powerful online edition compris-
ing over 21,000 official acts that are freely accessible to a new genera-
tion of scholars. The documentary texts, only about 7 percent of which
had been previously published or cited, are fully transcribed and anno-
tated, provided with summaries, indices, analysis for guided access,
links to related acts. They deal with every aspect of the Opera's activ-
ities, from the cupola to the church's magnificent furnishings, from the
cathedral's financing to its administrative personnel, from the papal
apartments in the nearby Dominican convent of Santa Maria Novella
to the fortifications in the countryside assigned to its workforces by
the beleaguered Commune.10
Di Pasquale 2002; and most recently Jones, Sereni and Ricci 2010, 38-61. The efficacious
story-telling of the Renaissance authors continues to resonate in modern popularizing litera-
ture, such as King 2000 and Walker 2002.
9 Saalman 1980, doc. 270-71. Cf. Manetti 1976, 98, emphasized by Vasari 1971, 176.
There is no record of workday food service on the dome or elsewhere in the Opera worksite.
The only regularly documented refreshments offered to workers were barrels of wine on certain
holidays or to celebrate moments of achievement in the building history, and the simplest of
bread and wine repasts in the context of special, after-hours service. The only recorded excep-
tion is the meal offered on the occasion of the benediction of the completed dome (see note
50).
10 The web edition of this source is cited in the present essay as Cupola. See Bibliography
for the full citation and internet addresses. An undertaking of this scope would have been im-
possible without the enlightened support of the modern Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore and
the special interest of its past president, Anna Mitrano. The project is indebted to Eugenio Pic-
chi and the DBT team at the Center of Computational Linguistics of the National Research
Council in Pisa (CNR-Pisa) for providing the textual database program, customized to accom-
modate the complexity of the data and revised and updated over the years. The long-standing
partnership with the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, thanks to the
vision of its director, Jürgen Renn, has endowed the project with the scientific collaboration
and tools to enable realization of its fullest potential as an internet edition, prepared by Jochen
Büttner. For the photographic documentation and virtual restoration of flood-damaged manu-
scripts, the project has benefited from the generous collaboration of the Conservation Institute
50

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MYTH AND MANAGEMENT
The documentation contained in The Years of the Cupola editio

constitutes a sort of self-portrait of the cathedral's administrative stru
tures and provides the material for an "authorized biography" of the
cupola construction, set in the context of the full range of the Oper
activities. Although it includes several extensive written programs f
the dome project, there is very little theory in these businesslike re
cords, and any graphic material they once contained has long been lo
or discarded. One finds instead the proceedings of the meetings of t
Opera wardens (called operai), agreements and contracts with coll
borators and suppliers, payments and accounts of all kinds recording
the day-to-day running of the vast worksite. In the digital edition t
most "prestigious" documents, in many cases previously publishe
are contextualized amongst more commonplace, no-longer-neglect
aspects of the construction effort, such as administrative personn
and skills, logistics, and the workforce. Its completeness opens new r
search perspectives by allowing comparison over time and quantitativ
analysis. The following reflections on the nature and use of this new
tool for the comprehension of the circumstances of the construction
of Brunelleschi's dome are offered as an indication of the directio
possible for systematic study of the sources now assembled.
This examination will proceed by comparison between the tw
kinds of voices available: those of the mythmaking narrators on t
one hand and those of the administrators on the other. The latte
story is embedded in the institutional archive that was created and co
served to justify the massive expenditure of public funds in the stru
ture that, more than any other, would become the symbol of the city
Florence. This approach grows out of an earlier study on Santa Ma
del Fiore which argued that the Manettian tradition could provide
key to interpretation of the archival sources known and published at
that time.11 The historian's task is certainly not to disdain partisan
counts, but to attempt to understand how the assumptions of the
of the Fachhochschule of Cologne, led by Robert Fuchs, and from the support of the EC
(European Cultural Heritage Online) program. The project has received major grants from
Getty Grant Program, the Tuscan Region, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. It
benefited from the exceptional archival and historical skills of its team of scholar- editors: G
briella Battista, also special assistant to the director, Lucia Sandri, Rolf Bagemihl, and Patr
Salvadori. Visitors to the website will find a fuller account of the project's development and
numerous collaborations that have contributed to its realization.
11 Haines 1989, 89-125.
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MARGARET HAINES
authors and audiences endowed them with verisimilitude.12 In this

light, for example, the forced sharing of supervisory roles over the cu-
pola between Brunelleschi and Ghiberti can be understood as the logi-
cal extension of the time-honored insistence on plurality in the search
for broad consensus in crucial and controversial matters of cathedral
planning, according to the civic model. These expectations were deeply
imbued in the republican mentality of the Florentine statesmen and en-
franchised citizens who were protagonists in the city's cathedral-build-
ing enterprise.13
The cupola supervisors
Let us focus first, then, on the role of the two project supervisors of
the dome ( provveditori della cupola was the most common formulation
of their title in the Opera documentation), a topic that is treated both
in Manetti's Life of Filippo Brunelleschi and in the autobiography with
which Lorenzo Ghiberti concluded his review of the artists of his age in
the Commentari (Figs. 2 and 3). Insistence on the matter of tides and
respective salaries characterizes both sources. Manetti writes that after
a building crisis, already in 1423 Brunelleschi was singled out as "in-
ventore" of the cupola, and that his dominant role was finally recog-
nized and rewarded in 1426, when his salary was increased from 36
to 100 florins a year, while Ghiberti's remained at 36 and, after a year,
was terminated.14 Ghiberti, on the other hand, claims that he was co-
12 In this vein see Cyril Mango's elegantly historicizing evaluation of the legends of the
Diegesis as a source on Hagia Sophia: Mango 1992, 49-50 ("the boundary between fact and
myth is not a fixed line").
13 Haines 1989. These concepts are further developed in Haines 1996; Haines 2002;
Haines 2008.
14 Manetti 1976, 91-92, 95. The 1423 vernacular document he quotes from a no-longer-
extant expenditures ledger corresponds to the Latin allocation of funds still conserved in
AOSMF, II- 1-83, c. 68h, published in Guasti 1857, doc. 177. The famous revised building
program of 1426 and new salary pacts are AOSMF, II-2-1, cc. 170vb and 171a, published in
Guasti 1857, doc. 75. Both acts, together with the numerous previously unpublished sources,
are now available in modern critical transcription in Cupola. In the present essay reference to
documents in this edition is made by archival classification and folio number followed by the
letter ascribed to specify progressive position of the act on the folio. Previous editions are cited
in the bibliography of the individual entries. Often more than one redaction of an act is pre-
served in various series of the Opera archives, and, since these relationships are systematically
indicated with active links in Cupola , references here are normally limited to one series or to the
most informative text.
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MYTH AND MANAGEMENT
supervisor with Brunelleschi for 18 years, always at the same salary.

Neither of these statements turns out to be exact, but Guasti's editio
of the archival sources failed to set the record straight because it priv
leged the annual re-election documents, which are indeed missing fo
both provveditori after 1432, while a note with reference to the act
salary payments incorrecdy stated that Ghiberti's ended after 23 Janu
ary 1433. 16
With the complete documentation in hand it is now certain that
Ghiberti's salary, like Brunelleschi's, continued through the end of
the cupola construction in the summer of 1436. 17 However, significant
temporary interruptions emerge for both provveditori. Ghiberti was
docked for l2/3 months' pay in the autumn of 1424, when he went to
Venice in the retinue of the Florentine ambassador, the rich, refined,
and powerful Palla Strozzi.18 His salary was once again withheld, this
time by decree of the wardens, for the entire second semester of the
following year, during the crisis period leading up to the revised pro-
gram for construction above the second walkway, while Brunelleschi's
payments continued without interruption.19 Immediately following the
Regarding Manetti's terminology, it should be noted that, despite his sensitivity to the ti-
tles and epithets ascribed to his hero in the documentation, in the thick of his narrative he gen-
erally reverts to the term capomaestro , from traditional Florentine parlance for the cathedral
head architect, ignoring the distinction between provveditore della cupola (architect, project
supervisor) and capomaestro (head builder/foreman) observed in the Opera documentation
during Brunelleschi's tenure.
15 "Poche cose si sono fatte d 'inportanza nella nostra terra non sieno state disegnate et
ordinate di mia mano. E spetialmente nell'edificatione della tribuna fumo con correnti, Filippo
et io, anni diciotto a uno medesimo salario, tanto noi conducemo detta tribuna": Ghiberti
1998, 97. The expression "concorrenti" may allude to the competitive nature of the two artists'
coexistence in this role. For the competition for the Baptistery doors, Lorenzo chose even
stronger terms, "conbattimento" and "conbattitori": ibid., 93.
16 Guasti 1857, 42-45. Guasti's own correction of this error, 188, has often escaped cri-
tical notice. See, for example, the otherwise accurate review in Ippolito and Peroni 1997, 17,
probably the source of its most recent exhumation in CORAZZI and Conti 2011, 62.
17 The hundreds of records of salary payments disbursed to the cupola supervisors at var-
ious intervals over the 16-year duration of the building effort can be reviewed in Cupola by
searching Topics, Personnel, pay - internal. Entries are found not only in the administrators'
books of allocations, II-4-8, II-4-9, II-4-12, and II-4-13, extant for the entire cupola period,
but also in the semestral registers kept by the notaries up through mid- 1425, II- 1-78 through
II- 1-86, in a personal notebook of two administrators for 1432-36, II-4-4, and in the treasurer's
cashbooks preserved for the second semesters of 1434 and 1435, VIII- 1-1 and VIII- 1-2.
18 Haines 2001.
19 Cupola , II- 1-86, c. 25vb. Brunelleschi's election to the city's highest office, the Priorate,
for May and June 1425, may have provided leverage for this temporary victory in the Opera.
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MARGARET HAINES
program's ratification in February 1426, a new election of the two cu-

pola supervisors, both praised for their "genius and virtue," introduced
the salary differentiation mentioned by Manetti, obligating Filippo to
full-time presence on the worksite and Lorenzo to a one-hour visit each
working day, a proviso that probably intensified the scrutiny of service
required for salary payments in the following years.20
The hierarchy of the cupola architects had nevertheless been evi-
dent from the outset, for out of the hundreds of extant salary docu-
ments there is only one case in which Brunelleschi's entry does not
precede that of his colleague.21 The scribes, like the biographers, were
sensitive to the matter of titles and personal qualifications. It is per-
haps revealing of the artists' comparative dedication to the architectur-
al task at hand that Lorenzo is normally qualified as goldsmith as well
as provveditore della cupola, while Filippo, whose original profession
was the same, is remembered as orafo only in three early instances.22
The term "inventor," reserved for Brunelleschi in the document
quoted by Manetti that awarded him special recompense for designing
the dome's wood chain, was never attributed to either supervisor in
the regular salary payments.23 Variations on the concept of governing,
however, crop up in the series, sometimes referring to both officials,
other times perceptibly favoring Brunelleschi.24 The formulation "pro-
cura sopra la cupola" in some of the payments to Ghiberti in 1427 and
1428 may reflect the less demanding if prestigious nature of his role
Cf. Zervas 1979, 630-635. It is to be noted that his necessary absence from the worksite during
his tenure as prior, which required constant residence in the Palazzo dei Signori, had no effect
on his Opera salary.
20 Cupola , II-2-1, c. 171a.
21 The exception, present in the notary's redaction for the second trimester of 1422, is
probably due to a slip of his pen, as the specification of the office ("electo in provisorem cupole
maioris") appears only in Filippo's entry: Cupola , II-1-81, cc. 65va and 65vb.
22 "Filippo orafo" in three entries of 1422: Cupola , II-4-9, cc. 29i and 37vc; II- 1-81,
c. 72vc.
23 The document in question is in Cupola , II- 1-83, c. 68h, 27 August 1423. Vasari's state-
ment that both artists were called "inventori" up to 1426 is an undocumented elaboration on
Manetti's point: Vasari 1971, 167, both redactions.
24 In 1423, a salary payment for "provvisione e ghubernatione" to both artists ( Cupola , II-
1-82, cc. 76d and 76e); in the last trimester of 1425, to Brunelleschi serving alone "sopra el
governo della tribuna maggiore" (II-4-12, c. 2a); immediately following the 1426 revision, to
Brunelleschi as "ghovernatore della cupola maggiore" and to Ghiberti "sopra ghoverno della
cupola," but in the next two installments Filippo kept his title while Lorenzo was called "ora-
fo" (II-4-12, cc. 1 If, llg, 16e, 16f).
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MYTH AND MANAGEMENT
(Fig. 4). 25 After this the only title normally used in the salary pay
was provveditore della cupola, sometimes referring to both colleag
but with greater frequency to Filippo from 1433. As the cupola ef
was nearing its conclusion in 1435 the erudite modern title of "ar
tect" was attributed to Brunelleschi in a single occurrence, an
spelling clearly presented a challenge for the administrator.26
After the institution of the new regime in 1426, both supervisor
documented as being regularly paid until 1430, when a series of
cumstances upset the smooth running of the cupola worksite. Bru
leschi was the first to absent himself for a cause which must have
seemed greater than the cupola itself, putting his ingenuity at the ser-
vice of the Florentine Republic in its ill-starred war with Lucca. The
architect had proposed a scheme to force the enemy into submission
by flooding the walled city with waters channeled from the nearby
Serchio river, and the Florentine war council decided to gamble on this
audacious tactic.27 After a first reconnaissance trip in March, reflected
in the punctilious deduction of ten days from his salary, Brunelleschi
returned to the swampy country around Lucca in April to direct the
construction of dikes and earthworks required for his plan.28 The re-
sult, however, was not the hoped-for expeditious victory of brainpower
in the controversial war, but the disastrous inundation of the Floren-
tines' own encampment in early June. Various versions of the event
are recounted in early histories of Florence and Lucca, most notably
Machiavelli's Istorie fiorentine , but not, to be sure, in Manetti's Life
25 Cupola , II-4-12, cc. 40vb, 76vb, 84f. The sole instance of "procuratore" attributed to
Brunelleschi on c. 60ve appears to be a scribe's lapsus.
26 Cupola , II-4-13, c. 97vh: (''proveditore e archighetore dell'Opera"). For the same per-
iod Lorenzo is simply "proveditore della chupóla," c. 97 vi. The only other instance of this clas-
sicizing term in the Years of the Cupola documentary corpus is in the description of advisers
consulted for the wardens' resolution of 3 March 1432 (II-2-1, c. 155vc) to award the commis-
sion for the bronze reliquary tomb of St. Zenobius to Ghiberti ("audirent omnes scultores, pic-
tores, architectores ceterosque eorum rerum eruditi"), a text whose all'antica language was in-
fluenced by the humanist Matteo Strozzi, the leading member of a special committee in charge
of that project (Haines 2008, 162).
27 The remarkable episode is the subject of an exemplary interdisciplinary study by Be-
nigni and Ruschi 1980, 517-533; see also a more correct earlier edition, Benigni and Ruschi
1977, 55-82, 337-358.
28 The wardens authorized his service in the field with the condition that his cupola salary
be reduced proportionally: Cupola , II-2-1, c. 124g. In the administrator's book for the first tri-
mester his pay was docked for "dì dieci quando andone a*lLucha"; in the following trimester
no entry is present for Brunelleschi, while the salary of Lorenzo di Bartolo "orafo" is recorded
as usual: II-4-12, cc. 130b and 13 7d.
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MARGARET HAINES
of Brunelleschi, nor in the ever more heroic reworking of this source by

Giorgio Vasari.29 It has been demonstrated that the humiliating setback
in Filippo's civic and technological career was not caused by a flaw in
the architect's idea ("concetto"), which was based on an accurate trigo-
nometric survey of the terrain around Lucca, but was brought on by
poorly financed and organized execution, under enemy fire, of the sys-
tem of earthworks and by the premature opening of the waters, per-
haps by enemy saboteurs.30
If, however, even at the time Brunelleschi was not held personally
responsible for the debacle, his protracted absence from the cathedral
payroll and worksite in the following months may betray his sense of
shame or fear of disfavor. The devastating plague that raged through
the city in the summer of 1430 would also have constituted a credible
excuse for flight.31 Filippo would return to his cupola responsibilities
only when summoned from the upper Arno valley town of Figline by
an Opera messenger in early September: he reappeared on the cathe-
dral payroll from the 15th after an absence of six months.32 As the dire
year of 1430 drew to a close, the wardens and Wool Guild consuls in a
joint session, citing the plague as the reason for not having done so
sooner, retroactively renewed his annual contract, which had expired
at the end of March 1430 when he was already in Lucca.33 Although
this act confirmed the usual salary and conditions, a subsequent resolu-
tion of 16 February 1431 slashed his pay from 100 to 50 florins per
year, "for good and just cause."34 Meanwhile, Ghiberti, who had been
paid regularly during Filippo's tour of duty in Lucca, disappeared from
29 The latter omission is the more notable because the same author mentions the war with
Lucca as the reputed cause for the dissipation of the funds left by the Scolari heirs for Brunel-
leschi's temple at Santa Maria degli Angeli: Vasari 1971, 186 (1568 edition only).
30 Benigni and Ruschi 1980 and 1977. Nevertheless, the event marked the collapse of
Filippo's flourishing political career, as reconstructed by Zervas 1979, 635-636.
31 Carmichael 1986, 34, table 2-1. Ghiberti's trip to Venice with the Florentine ambas-
sadors in the autumn of 1424, another dangerous plague year, would later be portrayed by him
as an escape from the "morìa" and adduced as justification for the delay in the consignment of
his bronze reliefs for the Siena Baptistery: Haines 2001, 57.
32 Cupola , II-4-13, cc. 2va, 5 va.
33 Cupola , II-2-1, c. 176vb, 14 December 1430. In order to facilitate the dispatch of
Opera business, two additional operai "extra numero" had been drawn for the office in No-
vember 1430: Archivio di Stato di Firenze (hereafter ASF), Arte della Lana 160, c. 20 (dated
29 November); names recorded in Arte della Lana 39, Tratte, c. 10 (dated 18 November).
34 Cupola , II-2-1, c. 137va. The actual salary allocations show that the reduced rate was
applied only from 14 March through June 1431: II-4-13, cc. lOva, 13 vi.
56

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MYTH AND MANAGEMENT
the Opera payrolls for twelve consecutive months from 1 July 1430.35
Only at the end of June 143 1 would both provveditori be reinstated
to their previous roles and salaries because, it was affirmed, the cupola
could not be completed without the reconfirmation of its usual, well-
informed supervisors, nor, in consideration of their past service, would
it be just to scrimp on their recompense.36
This prolonged turbulence in the roles of the cupola supervisors re-
flects a new crisis period in the building process; it coincides, in fact,
with the dating to around 1430 of an interruption in construction, cor-
responding to discontinuities in the masonry above the third walk-
way.37 Brunelleschi's absence during the spring and summer of 143
was undoubtedly a restraining factor on the progress of work. The cir-
cumstances recall the story recounted by Manetti of Filippo's feigned
illness that brought construction to a halt, exposing Lorenzo's incom-
petence to direct the worksite.38 That event, which the biographe
dates in accordance with the Opera documentation to 1423, may in
fact be a narrative conflation of several episodes demonstrating how
the architect's continual presence was essential to the progress of con-
struction. As Manetti tells it, Brunelleschi did not obtain the elimina-
tion of his rival, but the division of tasks at hand, Ghiberti choosing
the wood chain, which he botched, Filippo, by exclusion, the new ma-
sonry and work platforms.
35 Without the full documentation of the salary records, the duration of this lacuna has
never been fully perceived. Krautheimer focused on the artist's personal life and works rather
than his tallied presences and absences as cupola supervisor at the Opera when suggesting win-
dows of opportunity for trips to Rome and Venice (Krautheimer 1970, 5-6, 357-358, 412). Hi
analysis of the eccentric Olympiad system for the dating of a Roman sojourn mentioned by
Ghiberti in the Commentari places the event in or before mid- 1430; in addition, he cites an
undocumented reference to a possible trip to Venice in that year. When drawn for the offic
of consul of the master builders' guild on 30 August 1430, "Lorenzo di Bartolucci intagliatore
was recorded as absent from the city (ASF, Mercanzia, Tratte 83, c. 127). I am grateful to Amy
Bloch for references and reflections on Ghiberti's activities and whereabouts in 1430-1431; se
also her study, Bloch 2008, 145-147.
36 Cupola , II-2-1, c. 177b. It should be noted that Ghiberti, although not in office at the
time, had served as consultant on the nave chains in the period leading up to the decision to
construct these reinforcements according to the indications of a model by Brunelleschi: Cupola
II-2-1, c. 136e.
37 Giorgi and Matracchi 2006, 296 (illustration), 310, without specification of the nat-
ure of the discontinuities. A date incised in fresh plaster under the third walkway has been read
as 1430, as it seems in the photograph published by its discoverers: Falletti and Paolini
1977, 57-58. A better on-site reading of the roughly scratched date appears to be 1429; since
nonstructural tasks such as plastering were often carried out in dead periods on the worksite,
its strict significance can only be as a terminus ante quem for the area under the walkway.
38 Manetti 1976, 92-95.
57

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MARGARET HAINES
After the completion of the wood chain in 1424, attention turned to

the stone chain under the second walkway, begun in June 1425 on the
eve of the first lengthy interruption of Ghiberti's salary (Fig. 5). 39 A pro-
longed consultation process during the following semester forged the
revised building program that was formally undersigned by both super-
visors and approved by all the Opera authorities in early 1426.40 It laid
out the specifications for the rising structure above the second walkway,
with the introduction of the famous herringbone brickwork and the so-
called horizontal arches intended to stabilize the two ever more inclined
shells of the dome during construction, which was to continue as begun
without supporting armature. Provision was made for stone and iron
circumferential chains and for enclosed work platforms to insure the
workers' safety. The institutional and heroizing significations of this pi-
votal moment in the planning of the great dome coexist in the notary's
redaction of the final act: in the main text he dutifully enumerates all the
participants in the deliberations and the signatories of the revised pro-
ject, but the succinct marginal title indicates his understanding of the
program's essential authorship, indicating that work will continue "ac-
cording to the design of Filippo di ser Brunelleschi."
On the basis of this document, building resumed apace until 1430,
around the level of the next walkway, the third. From here, the con-
tinuation of the last, breathtaking segment of the vaults would have
been an intimidating task under any circumstances, but the situation
was complicated by fears for the stability of the unbuttressed nave
vaults, unduly stressed by the thrusts of the rising dome. In January
143 1 the decision was taken, in consultation with Brunelleschi, Giliber-
ti, the Opera's trusted foreman Battista d'Antonio, and other qualified
builders, to install an extensive system of iron and wood chains (tie
rods) to secure the cracking nave vaults, a project that would continue
for another six years.41 Furthermore, although big orders of bricks in
the distinct sizes employed in the cupola's herringbone fabric were
awarded in early 1431, 42 by June a major liquidity crisis of the Opera
39 Cupola , II-4-9, c. lOlva.

40 Cupola , II-2-1, c. 170vb: "Quod laborerium cupole magne sequatur secundum diseg-
num Filippi ser Brunelleschi."
41 Cupola , II-2-1, c. 136e and subsequent documentation searchable under Topics, Ob-
jects, chains. For the whole story with analysis of the structures, see Giorgi and Matracchi
2006, 303-308.
42 Cupola , II-2-1, cc. 135vd (January), 137g (February), 140vd (April).
58

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MYTH AND MANAGEMENT
prompted a countermand, restricting the consignment of bricks and

lime for mortar to the bare minimum necessary to carry on constru
tion.43 All of these causes of concern contribute to our understandin
of the importance and the cost of reinstating both cupola provvedito
at this time. That work on the cupola had come to a standstill, thoug
never explicitly stated in the documentation, can be deduced by stat
ments of intention to resume construction in February and again in A
gust 1431. 44
Contrary to what has been affirmed in a number of recent studies
the cupola, building above the third walkway must have been back u
der way at a steady pace by mid- 1431. 45 Only brief absences of the
supervisors are documented in the following years. The first of thes
was Brunelleschi's authorized trip to serve Niccolò III d'Esté in Ferrar
and Gianfrancesco Gonzaga in Mantua in the spring of 1432; the war
dens wrote to these rulers, asking them to respect the time limit of o
and a half months for the architect's absence in view of the Oper
need of him ("allegando necessitatem Opere").46 Filippo had in fact re
turned before the next major design decision was taken in hand in t
summer of 1432: the question of the exact dimension of the ocul
opening for the lantern at the dome's summit and the structure
the closing ring intended to stabilize the whole structure.47 A hithe
43 Cupola , II-2-1, c. 143 va, 15 June 1431.

44 Cupola , II-2-1, c. 13 7e (slaking of mortar); c. 138a (new list of 39 workers to start on
1 March); c. 148b (order to have work begin on the cupola). Despite all the difficulties, the en
must not have seemed far off if a model of the altar of the chapel of St. Zenobius was urgen
ordered because "the cupola will soon be closed": II-2-1, c. 136vb, 26 January 1431.
45 A misinterpretation of a document recording the completion of a stone chain in t
summer of 1433 ( Cupola , II-4-13, c. 60a: "misono la chatena de macingni e serarola in su
chupóla") as referring to the ring embedded under the third walkway instead of the final bo
incorporated in the closing ring has given rise to a string of excessively late chronologies for
upper reaches of the vaults and the closing ring, starting with Saalman 1980, 132; followed b
Ippolito and Peroni 1997, 36-37; Fanelli 2004, 30; Corazzi, Conti and Marini 2005, 13-
Giorgi and Matracchi 2006, 310-311; Corazzi and Conti 2011, 56 , 86-87, 110. Giorgi's c
culations of the construction rate in the upper reaches of the vaults are therefore subjec
revision.
46 Brunelleschi turned first to the highest echelon, the consuls of the Arte della Lana, t
obtain release from his obligation to the guild and the operai'. ASF, Arte della Lana 164, Atti
partiti, c. 48v, 27 March 1432 (unpublished). The Opera documents are in Cupola : leave
absence of one month and 15 days granted on 2 April 1432, corresponding to salary interr
tion from 1 March to 19 May 1431: II-2-1, c. 157a, and II-4-13, c. 29vn.
47 Cupola , especially II-2-1, cc. 163a, 167g, 20 lg. For the specially cut stone blocks an
the chronology of this structure, see pp. 78-80 below, under "Building supplies," and Hain
59

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MARGARET HAINES
unrealized disappearance of Ghiberti from the payroll in July 1433

seems, on the other hand, to have required no authorization, perhaps
because his services were not vital to the worksite at this point.48 Bru-
nelleschi's final absence from the cupola payroll in April 1436 was duly
authorized in response to a petition presented by him and the marquis
of Mantua.49 Months earlier major construction work on the dome and
closing ring must have been sufficiently completed to allow the removal
of equipment and the paving and preparation of the crossing area for
the solemn consecration ceremony of the cathedral in the presence of
Pope Eugenius IV on 25 March 1436, the first day of the new year ac-
cording to ancient Florentine calculations. The mandates of the two
provveditori terminated at the end of June, and the achievement of
the miraculous dome itself merited a new ceremony presided over by
the bishop of Fiesole on the following 30 August.50
The workforce
Another rich category of documentation yielded by the new edition

concerns the composition of the workforce over the twenty years cov-
ered.51 In anticipation of the detailed and systematic presentation that
and Battista 2006, 59-71, as well as the recent revision and amplification of this material in
Haines and Battista, online (2012).
48 Cf. Brunelleschi's salary for same period: Cupola , II-4-13, c. 61 vf. In March 1432 Ghi-
berti had contracted for the bronze reliquary chest of St. Zenobius, but work seems to have
been slow in starting. His only payment for this commission in 1433 was allocated on 10 July
with the clause that it be disbursed on 1 August after another debt to marble suppliers: II-4-4,
c. 24s; II-4-13, c. 59ve.
49 Leave for 20 days granted 3 April 1436 with salary interruption from 5 April to 1 May
1436: Cupola , II-2-1, c. 251vg; II-4-13, c. 127m.
50 The final salaries of the cupola supervisors are in Cupola , II-4-13, cc. 131vd and 13 lve.
The consecration has been the subject of important recent scholarship, including Kent 2000,
122-128, on Cosimo's appropriation of the center stage in an achievement from which he had
been largely absent; Smith and O'Connor 2006, 30-48 and 305-359 on Giannozzo Manetti's
account of the event. The full Opera documentation is now available in Cupola , under Topics,
Events, extraordinary, consacrazione. The more intimate benediction ceremony, with a rare
multi-course meal for the Opera workers and officials, is recorded in Cupola , II-4-13, c. 136g.
The diary of Bartolomeo del Corazza (1991, 36) describes the repast as having been served
in the workyard behind the cathedral.
51 A word about terminology. When referring to the skilled workers employed on the ca-
thedral worksite, the Opera documents most commonly employ the generic term maestri/ ma-
gistři, i.e., master workmen of undefined specialization, mentioned individually or in groups.
60

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MYTH AND MANAGEMENT
these sources merit, a concise overview will be offered here of the num
bers and categories of the workers and the policies regarding their ser
vice, to suggest how this data can modulate the "mythic" story of th
cupola that has come down to us.
Twice yearly the Opera issued rolls of the workers authorized t
serve in the cathedral works with their individual daily wage rates, ty
cally higher for the summer months when days were longer and lower
the winter. The number of laborers listed fluctuated considerably ov
the years. For example, in 1420 the figure dropped from 87 workers em
ployed in the pre-cupola push to complete the third radial tribune ar
to a select list of 48 master masons assigned to the new cupola effort
the late summer. Between lists, continual hiring, dismissal, and transfe
of workers responded to the ever-changing circumstances. Neverthe-
less, if used with circumspection, the biannual rolls provide a usef
index of employment patterns over the whole period of the dom
construction. The table provided here facilitates visualization an
references for this class of documentation. For the 31 semesters fro
the beginning of the cupola effort in the summer of 1420 to its compl
tion in the summer of 1436, 28 rolls are recorded, listing 43-85 qualif
workmen per season, with an average presence of 65.
More precise qualifications are routinely furnished only for specialized trades: smiths {fabbri
sawyers (segatori), and occasionally woodworkers and construction carpenters ( legnaiuoli
maestri di legname). The specifications for stone carvers ( maestri di scalpello , scalpellatori) oc
more frequently, but with little regularity, even within the careers of given individual
Builders/wallers are only rarely specified as maestri da murare or muratori in the documentat
of the Opera worksites, although the same sources commonly used these terms to describe co
tractors of fortifications. Many of the workers may have been able to perform various tasks
were prepared to do so in order maintain steady employment as the Opera's requirement
changed over time. Often even in the election documents it is difficult to distinguish betwee
maestri (skilled master artisans) and manovali (a more elusive category in the Opera sourc
including generic unskilled workers as well as specialists in mortar and other ancillary tas
whose salary levels often overlap those of the maestri in the mid-to-low range.
In view of the ambiguity of the sources, the application of standardized terminology, su
as that proposed by Goldthwaite 1980, xiv-xv, motivating the distinction between stonecu
ters and wallers, would have been misleading, if not impossible. In the following discussio
besides general terms such as "workers," "workmen," or "workforce," which make no attemp
to single out the various skills, the term "master" is sometimes used as a direct translation
maestri in the original texts, i.e. otherwise undefined skilled artisans. The term "mason" is a
employed as an alternative indication of the master builders on the worksite. "Stone carv
has been employed only when unambiguously justified by the qualification or specific activit
stated in the documentation. On the roles and status of various workers in the constructi
industry, see also Giuliano Pinto's survey of the situation across north-central Italy in the la
Middle Ages (1984, 71-96).
61

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MARGARET HAINES
Workers' rolls in the period of construction of the cupola of Santa Maria del Fiore
Semester Total workers Opera Quarry ^ y Observations Source in Cupo

non-quarry ^ y r
1420 summer 87 - - ind. manovali (?) II-1-77, c. 31vd
Cut to 48 for II-1-77, c. 45vb
cupola
1420-21 winter - - - book missing

1421 summer 43 - - incl. manovali II-1-78, cc. 24b, 37va
18 Quarry assignments II-1-79, c
begin
1421-22 winter 55 37 18 incl. manovali II-1-79, c. 35vb

1422 summer 71 - - incl. manovali II- 1-80, c. 24va
1422-23 winter 79 - 13 no ref. to manovali II-1-81, c. 24va
Cut to 34 II-1-82, c. 2c
1423 summer 57 40 17 excl. manovali II-1-82, c. lib

1423-24 winter 71 44 27 excl. manovali II- 1-83, c. 9ve
1424 summer 61 37 24 excl. manovali II-1-84, c. 14b
1424-25 winter 58 35 23 excl. manovali II- 1-85, cc. 4a, 4va
1425 summer 73 45 28 excl. manovali II-1-86, c. 12va
1425-26 winter 72 47 25 excl. manovali and II-2-1, c. 14a
maestri on fixed sal-
aries
1426 summer 55 43 12 excl. manovali II-2-1, c. 30a

Firing and hiring II-2-1, cc. 29
maestri
1426-27 winter 63 50 13 excl. manovali II-2-1, c. 44g

1427 summer 75 52 23 excl. manovali II-2-1, c. 55d
42 manovali listed II-2-1, c. 56
1427-28 winter 62 - - excl. manovali II-2-1, c. 69vn
1428 summer 71 - - excl. manovali II-2-1, c. 82vc

Cut to 67 Manovali cut by 6 II-2-1, c. 841
1428-29 winter 70 - - excl. manovali II-2-1, c. 94va
62

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MYTH AND MANAGEMENT
1429 summer 76 - - excl. manovali II-2-1, c. 104 ve

1429-30 wint. 85 58 27 excl. manovali II-2-1, c. 114vc
1430 summer 82 50 32 excl. manovali II-2-1 c. 125g

1430-31 winter 66 53 13 also 4 manovali II-2-1, c. 130va
1431 summer 73 52 21 excl. manovali II-2-1, c. 141b
Cut to 10 II-2-1, c. 143c
1431-32 winter 51 41 10 (?) excl. manovali II-2-1, c. 150f

1432 summer 67 56 33 General revision of II-2-1, c. 159a
Cut to 34 workers II-2-1, cc. 160h, 160vd
1432-33 winter - - - Operai control man- II-2-1 neg. for rolls
ovali hirings
1433 summer - - - II-2-1 neg. for rolls

1433-34 winter 64 44 20 excl. manovali II-2-1, cc. 207 vf, 209a
1434 summer 53 - - no ref. to manovali II-2-1, c. 214a
1434-35 winter 60 - - excl. manovali II-2-1, c. 224va
1435 summer - - - II-2-1 neg.

1435-36 winter 56 - - excl. manovali II-2-1, c. 243f
1436 summer - - - II-2-1 neg.

Semesters 28 18 19 33 semesters, 32 docu-
present semesters semesters semesters mented
Average number 65 44 20
of workers per workers workers workers
season*
* In the case of rolls recorded as having been cut to a lower number of workers, the calculation of the average is
based on the second number.
63

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MARGARET HAINES
However, the first factor that needs to be considered in the analysis

of these numbers is the institution in the spring of 1421 of a separate
Opera workforce at the newly leased quarry of Trassinaia, which would
provide the macigno sandstone for the structural elements of Brunel-
leschi's dome.52 In the following years, 18 of the recorded rolls distin-
guish between workers employed in the Opera and those deployed at
the quarry. Non-quarry workers number between 58 and 34, with an
average presence of 44. For the quarry, recorded numbers range be-
tween 33 and 10, averaging 20. These figures imply that only about
two-thirds of the workers present in the total rolls in the years after
the activation of the quarry worksite could have been deployed in
and around the church.
Additional variables need to be taken into account in any attempt to
deduce the size of the cupola workforce from the periodic payroll lists.
For example, crews were sent out to work on outside projects assigned
to the Opera by the Commune. These missions could range from minor
repairs to public buildings or urban clearing to the construction of
massive fortifications in the countryside. The latter, though normally
executed by local contractors and laborers, typically involved the occa-
sional participation of some Opera payroll personnel. The Opera itself
had a number of satellite properties requiring remodeling and repairs,
and these operations blended almost imperceptibly into the running of
the cathedral worksite. Sometimes the fast-rotating wardens claimed
the patronage prerogative of nominating new workmen to the lists,
and their appointments could prove to be ephemeral. All of these cir-
cumstances mean that the lists of non-quarry master workers should be
considered the maximum available for onsite construction, whose num-
ber needs to be adjusted according to other demands present at any
given moment. A profile of the minimum complement of skilled work-
ers at the Opera worksite is provided by the resolution of January 1423
cutting its number back to 34: 22 magistři di chazuola (a rare specifica-
tion of wallers), two carpenters, two smiths, and eight stonecutters. Sig-
52 The importance attributed to the regular supply and quality of this stone (later known,
by extension of one of its varieties, as pietra serena , but invariably called "macigno" in the Op-
era documents) is demonstrated by this unprecedented operation, a departure from the tradi-
tional acquisition of pietra forte (arenaceous limestone) building stone from individual quarry-
men and suppliers. For this quarry site in the hillside above Villa I Tatti along the Trassinaia
stream, see the joint study with geologists of the University of Florence: Coli et al. 2008, 214-
221.
64

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MYTH AND MANAGEMENT
nificantly, the same number of 34 was the target of the cutback decre
nearly a decade later, in the summer of 1432.
It is, however, necessary to determine to what extent the category
manovali (roughly translated as unskilled workers), a grade down fro
the master builders, is represented in the statistics of our table
Through the summer of 1422 most payrolls explicitly state that they r
gard both "magistři" and "manovales," although the distinction
qualifications is not individually indicated. After the mention of the u
skilled category disappears from the general rolls, most maestri payro
are paired with authorizations to the best-informed trio of Opera pe
sonnel, the foreman ( capomaestro ), the administrator, and the paym
ter, to set the wages of the manovali separately, typically by averagin
the indications of their three independent lists.53 The fact that no sy
tematic collapse is registered in the numbers of workers listed in th
rolls following the exclusion of the manovali after 1422 would se
to be a measure of the modest entity of the group concerned, a dedu
tion apparendy supported by other sporadic mentions of their numbe
ten were fired in the winter of 1421-22, only two allowed in the quar
during the cutback of December 1430, all but seven excluded from t
Opera in the winter of 1432-33. 54 However, the only recorded roll o
manovali in the cupola period, that for the summer of 1427, belies t
impression, listing no less that 42 such workers.55 Even in relationsh
to the relatively high number of 15 masters enrolled for the same s
son, these so-called manual laborers account for 36 percent of t
authorized workforce.56
53 Payrolls with such arrangements are indicated in the table as "excl(uding) manoval
This practice antedates the cupola effort, see, for example, Cupola , II- 1-70, c. 17a, the first
ample in the edition.
54 Cupola , II- 1-79, cc. 34vb, 34vf; 11-2-1. cc. 134g, 194va.
55 This exceptional document is the result of a special procedural formulation, subjecting
the usual fixing of this category's wages by the foreman, paymaster, and administrator to t
approval of the wardens: Cupola , II-2-1, cc. 56b, 56vg. These manovali , like the master worke
would have been distributed around the various worksites managed by the Opera.
56 As has already been suggested, the category is unhomogeneous. The two top wages
15 and 13 soldi a day regard a maestro working in this less qualified capacity and a smit
Others are in the range of 1 1 to 7 soldi, except for two boys at 3 and 5 soldi. Eight of the c
tegory had wages matching or exceeding some of the master workers of the same summ
whose pay ranged from 20 to 10 soldi. It was fairly common for master masons to work tem
porarily as manovali , whether forced by order of the foreman or simply to maintain emplo
ment, and the question of how this should influence their pay was raised ( Cupola , II-4-
c. 34b; II-2-1, cc. 94c, 195vl). Manovali who performed special tasks were usually rewarded wi
65
5

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MARGARET HAINES
There is no assurance that this semester was typical, nor is it pos-

sible to derive a ratio between master workers and the assistants who
served them, since many of the manual laborers must have been de-
ployed in independent tasks such as managing and positioning loads
of building materials around Brunelleschi's famous construction ma-
chinery.57 It is, however, evident that there were never as many as
two manovali per master mason, as assumed in a recent estimation
of the cupola crews.58 This study, which usefully posed the question
of how the workers might have been arrayed on the movable working
platforms in each of the eight segments of the cloister-vault dome, pro-
posed four mini-squads per segment, each composed of two master
masons and four manovali. This produced a population of 24 wallers
per segment, making an astonishing total of 192 for the whole struc-
ture, to say nothing of the ground-based stone carvers and other pre-
paratory workers. On the contrary, the actual number of men on and
around the cupola is unlikely ever to have exceeded 50-60, including
the manovali. This workforce comprised a dominant component of
skilled workers accompanied by a smaller squadron of so-called un-
skilled workers, many of whom were acknowledged specialists, if not
maestri. They may have rotated positions, gradually completing each
new course of masonry around the eight segments of the dome's cir-
cumference. This understanding should help to explain what has been
described as a very desultory rate of construction.59
We possess the documentary tools to determine the actual paid ser-
vice of day laborers for only two semesters, late in the cupola effort, for
which the first preserved cashbooks register each worker's credits and
receipts.60 The tabulation of individual accounts exceeds the intent of
higher than average pay: these include a master of scaffolding (II- 1-71, c. 3g), a gatekeeper of
the cupola (II-2-1, c. 196vm), and the mortar specialist ( passim under name Martino di Nanni
in the 1430s). There are also instances of crossovers between the Opera messengers and this
category, including an election document requiring messengers to perform manual labor once
their other tasks were done (II-2-1, c. 217m).
57 For the loose characterization of the category, cf. Goldthwaite's findings with regard to
the Florentine building industry at large: Goldthwaite 1980, 322.
58 Rocchi Coopmans de Yoldi 2006, 266-267.
59 Compare the number of workers authorized for the stone construction of the lower
levels of the cathedral's east end in 1382: 28 maestri and 20 manovali in the winter, 41 and
34 respectively in the summer, published in Guasti 1887, doc. 334. A compact work crew
and gradual construction rate at Santa Maria del Fiore were presumably established practice
by Brunelleschi's time.
60 Cupola , cashbooks kept by the Opera treasurers: VIII- 1-1, second semester of 1434,
66

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MYTH AND MANAGEMENT
the present essay. However, a comparison of the first book, covering

the second semester of 1434, with the salary list of the same period,
permits verification of the payrolls as indicators of the workers actua
enjoying significant employment (for the purpose of this survey arbit
rily defined as twenty or more working days in the semester). All b
one man on the authorized winter roll of 60 maestri met this requir
ment, and many approached full-time employment. The difference b
tween the payroll numbers and the 73 individual cash accounts cover
ing more than twenty days is made up primarily of manovali, either
explicitly qualified as such or recognizable by name or salary rate
10 soldi or less. Many accounts in all categories record days work
at the convent of Santa Maria Novella, where the Opera was responsi
ble for remodeling the papal apartments to house the curia of Eugen
IV, as well as in the canons' cloister near the cathedral. However, mo
of the workers who concentrated on these outside construction sites
fall into the group of 23 additional workers who served for fewer tha
twenty days, a situation that suggests that they were "picked up" on t
market to meet temporary exigencies.
This review of the new documentation supports the profile of the
cathedral workforce formulated in an earlier study on the basis of sam
ple statistics: although variable in size and composition, it was org
nized around a relatively compact "core group" of workers who e
joyed exceptionally stable employment in medieval terms, both in th
number of days worked in a given period and in the continuation
employment opportunities over time.61 Fluctuations in the size of th
Opera workforce largely concern a more peripheral type of work
summoned in response to specific needs and projects. The numb
of workers employed at any time was carefully pared to correspond
the Opera's financial resources, mostly drawn from the public pu
and modulated by the vicissitudes of the Florentine economy.62
and VIII- 1-2, second semester of 143 5. I am grateful to Gabriella Battista for her assistance
analyzing the material on workers' accounts presented here.
61 Haines 1985, pp. 89-115. The findings can now be compared with the rich sources f
the cathedral of Siena, thanks to the exemplary presentation of Giorgi and Moscadelli 2
230-299, esp. 257, 286. They determined that in the periods when salaried work prevailed o
piecework in the course of the fourteenth century, a similar highly qualified central group
workers enjoyed long-time employment stability.
62 Haines 2002, 160-161, table 2, showing the gabelle income in the cupola period con
tracting from 2,696 florins in 1420 to 1,732 florins in 1432.
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Calls for economy in the workforce conspicuously accompanied

two moments of definition and launching of the cupola effort, which
was seen as taking priority over full employment in other concerns of
the cathedral. The cutback to 48 men in the summer of 1420 with
the elimination of stone carvers was justified by lack of funds and mar-
ble, presumably for the external revetments of the tambour, which
would be postponed for decades. However, by the following year, with
the new quarrying activities for structural stone for the dome, employ-
ment was creeping back to earlier levels. Again in April of 1426, when
construction resumed according to the revised program, 25 men were
suspended with the explanation that it would be reprehensible for the
Opera to allow expenses it could not pay. Soon after, however, a dozen
magistři were reinstated, some on the condition of being paid two
months later; others were called back with wages reduced by 25 per-
cent.63
The next major cutback was in the winter of 1430-143 1, a moment,
as we have seen, of programmatic, supervisory, and economic diffi-
culty; but the reduction in manpower was short-lived.64 Not surpris-
ingly this coincides with another period of depressed income, and
the provision taken in the summer of 1431 to pay the manovali before
any other creditors seems to take into account the near-subsistence le-
vel of their earnings.65 In August 1432 the wardens prohibited the de-
ployment of the recently reduced roster of maestri on any task unre-
lated to the dome for six months, an exceptional measure probably
dictated by enduring economic restrictions as well as by the desire to
move the construction ahead.66
In the final years of the cupola, irregularly recorded payrolls show
employment levels around or below average levels. In this period it
would be particularly difficult to determine how many workers were
actually deployed on the cupola since work was simultaneously under
63 Cupola , II-2-1, cc. 29va, 30a, 32vc, 32vd, 36f. Significantly, 1426 is the year with the
lowest recorded income for the cupola period.
64 The rolls proclaimed in September 1430 for the ensuing winter (see the table on
pp. 62-63) were drastically reduced in December, when 24 Opera maestri and 13 from the
quarry were dismissed. Exceptionally, the manovali at the quarry are also mentioned: three
fired and two retained. Previous levels were restored in March, when 39 maestri , mostly mem-
bers of the previous rolls, were authorized to return to work: Cupola , II-2-1, cc. 134g, 138a.
65 Cupola , II-2-1, c. 147c.
66 Cupola , II-2-1, c. 168i.
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MYTH AND MANAGEMENT
way on the reinforcing chains in the nave, treated as an integral part o

the Opera worksite. It would be possible to separate out the days
worked at Santa Maria Novella in the two surviving cashbooks, but
these sources provide no criterion for quantifying the labor effort con-
centrated in the last year on the preparation of the vast new east end fo
the solemn consecration of the cathedral on 25 March 1436, on the eve
of the pope's departure from his first Florentine residency. In the fina
years of construction, the regular quarry crew presumably dwindled
when the important stone components of the closing ring were le
out as piecework to specialized masons. In turn the demanding task
of positioning and securing these huge blocks in the uppermost reache
of the dome was stalled awaiting late consignment.67
This payroll documentation can be compared to the popular stories
concerning Brunelleschi's relationship to the Opera workforce. One of
these is the famous question of the Lombard masons, called in by Bru-
nelleschi, according to Manetti, in response to the unreasonable de
mands of local master builders.68 Once again, the biographer's tale
seem inspired by actual events, but spun out for narrative effect. He
places this episode at the beginning of the cupola effort, when he says
that early plans contemplated the assignment of each of the eight seg
ments of the octagonal vault to a contracting master waller. The accoun
goes on to describe the constant interference and pressure from these
masters, which exasperated Filippo. When he realized that, believin
themselves irreplaceable, they had formed a cartel in their own interests
Brunelleschi called their bluff by summoning eight Lombards, whom h
trained to take their places. Seeing their error, the original eight re-
pented and were employed ( adoperati ) on reasonable terms.69
There is no trace of a transient octet of Lombards in the cathedral
documentation, and this contradiction might seem sufficient to dismiss
67 The documentation for this phase is presented in Haines and Battista 2006, 59-71
and in the revised online edition of 2012.
68 Manetti 1976, 96-97.
69 This story was retold in a later temporal context and with different circumstances by
Vasari; see Vasari 1971, 174-175. He places it in a phase of intense building after the comple
tion of the chains, and describes a classic strike of presumptuous workers, irritated by Brunel-
leschi's constant prodding, who were maneuvering for higher wages. Their punishment of
being fired and having to supplicate reinstatement, finally conceded with less pay than before,
smacks of the more despotic mores of Vasari's time. His Lombard strikebreakers, who are said
to have worked "for several weeks," numbered not eight but ten. This colorful reformulation,
unlike Manetti's, bears little relationship to the existing documentation.
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Manetti's whole story of Filippo's astute taming of the presumptuous

master builders as picturesque fabrication. However, the first election
of the new cupola provveditori in April 1420 did indeed also nominate
eight master builders to execute the dome according to their orders.70
This was no ordinary hiring of maestri, and our understanding of their
entrepreneurial position is enhanced by Manetti's account, which por-
trays them as contractors of the eight segments. The eight, none pre-
sent in the previous Opera payrolls, constitute an interesting group.
Seven of them are documented as consultants and contractors,
handsomely paid by the Opera both before and after their nomina-
tions.71 Although none ever played a leading or stable role in the reg-
ular workforce, the fact that exceptionally high wages were retroac-
tively fixed for four of them on the eve of the inception of the
cupola effort on 28 June 1420 can perhaps be read as a record of their
insistent presence, described in the Life.12 None of them was included
in the reduced workforce named for the cupola on the same day.
The high wages attributed to three of the rejected maestri in payroll
additions during the following year may have been intended as recom-
pense for occasional consultations rather than regular service, judging
from a resolution of September 1421 that enjoins two of them to pre-
sent themselves when summoned.73 This kind of relationship may actu-
ally constitute the employment that Manetti alludes to at the end of his
tale. Although soon totally removed from the cupola payrolls, some of
™ Cupola , II- 1-77, c. 34a.

71 Tuccio di Giovanni da Siena and Gherardo Belacqua had been paid in 1418 to monitor
the construction of Brunelleschi' s demonstration model; Ricco di Giovanni, Filippo di Giovan-
ni, Niccolò di Benozzo and Belacqua were called in to review the model again in 1423: Cupola ,
II-1-74, cc. 58vc, 58vd; II-4-11, c. 13i. Niccolò di Benozzo had served as foreman in the 1419
campaign for the papal apartments in Santa Maria Novella, and Berto di Bartolomeo, Geri di
Antonio Ciofi and Belacqua had contracted for large-scale works on that site: II- 1-75, cc. 20b,
48g, 49va, 49vb; II-1-76, cc. 47d, 47e, 47f, 51vc, 51vd; II-1-77, c. 67h.
72 These were Filippo di Giovanni, Niccolò di Benozzo, Belacqua and Ricco di Giovanni,
to be paid 27 soldi per day, together with four other maestri , a group that might constitute a
variation on the "gang of eight." Also listed are two assistants, a carpenter, and two sawyers, all
said to have worked primarily on the third tribune: II- 1-77, c. 45 vb. A top wage for a master
builder would normally be 20 soldi (1 lira) per day.
73 Gherardo Belacqua at 24 soldi for the summer of 1421; Berto di Bartolomeo and Geri
d'Antonio Ciofi at 25 soldi in a June addition to that season's roll; Gherardo and Berto again at
25 soldi in a retroactive addition to the winter 1421 roll: Cupola , II- 1-78, cc. 24va, 44va; II- 1-
80, c. 13 vb. The summons resolution is in II- 1-79, c. 23 vb. The Biagio without patronymic in
the original election document seems nowhere recognizable by a comparably high wage in the
Opera payrolls.
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MYTH AND MANAGEMENT
the dome's would-be entrepreneurs had lasting relationships with the

Opera: two served as consultants on the nave chains in 1431, and
Gherardo Belacqua headed the partnership that contracted to build
the great elevated wooden bridge for the papal procession from Santa
Maria Novella to the Duomo for the consecration ceremony in 1436.74
The most intriguing of the eight, however, is Berto di Bartolomeo, re
cently identified as the mysterious patron of one of the great master-
pieces of the early Renaissance, Masaccio's Trinity in Santa Maria No-
vella.75
In the April 1420 election document of the supervisors and the
eight building masters, a third cupola provveditore was listed after Bru-
nelleschi and Ghiberti, apparently as an afterthought. This was Battista
d'Antonio, a stone carver who had early on emerged as particularly use-
ful in the Opera workforce and had been serving as interim capomae-
stro since late 1418. As the appointment of the eight maestri soon eva-
porated, so too did this elevated qualification of Battista, who would
remain in the position of general capomaestro dell'Opera (foreman
and head builder) for the rest of his long and worthy career.76 No se-
parate squadrons led by outside experts, no Lombards. Instead, a work
crew of standing Opera masons would be led for the entire sixteen-year
adventure of dome building by one of their own, the trusted Battista
d'Antonio. Although a hierarchy of workers is clearly reflected in their
graduated pay scale (Fig. 6), there is no indication in the Opera records
of standing and stable groups responsible for the separate segments of
the octagon. On the contrary, Battista (and not Brunelleschi) was re-
peatedly empowered to deploy the workers as he saw fit in and around
the cathedral, at the quarry, and at the other worksites managed by the
Opera.
But the cosmopolitan slant served the legend that Manetti was fab-
ricating. He also insists, for example, on the participation, at Brunel-
leschi's suggestion, of many "foreigners" in the preliminary consulta-
tions for the dome project, a term that could be correctly applied,
amongst those reimbursed for submitting models, only to two Sienese
masters, since Pisa, whence came two other participants, was already
74 Cupola, II-4-13, cc. 15vl, 15vm; II-2-1, c. 250c.

75 Cecchi 2002, 46-57. See also Comanducci 2003, pp. 19-20.
76 For a thorough and sympathetic account of his nearly lifelong collaboration with the
Opera, see Saalman 1980, 186-190.
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MARGARET HAINES
subject to Florentine dominion.77 One would be hard-pressed to find

many extraterritorial workers in the following years on the cupola pay-
rolls, which were composed almost entirely of local masons and stone
carvers, many coming from the quarry-rich villages around Florence.78
The hiring of a foreigner was apparently such a rare occurrence as to
elicit special authorization, of which only one case is recorded, for an
unspecified "Lombard" in early 1430, and it is not clear whether he
ever actually went to work.79 There was, however, a Lombard master
carpenter named Antonio di Battolino, a Black Friar from Vercelli,
the north Italian city famous for its vaulted cathedral, who commanded
an exceptionally high wage in the years 1421-23 (Fig. 6) and was also
rewarded for the manufacture of a pulley and for a model of the ele-
vated crane to be used in conjunction with the great hoist. This tech-
nical competitor of Brunelleschi's is mentioned and liquidated by Ma-
netti, and his judgment is confirmed by the difference in the recompense
to the two inventors.80 In 1424 an otherwise unknown German called
Averardo was paid for a model for a new hoist, following the precedent
set by the competition of 1418 of reimbursing any expenses for propo-
sals for the resolution of the technical problems of the cupola work-
site.81 Perhaps the memory of these foreign presences seeded the ima-
gination of the architect or his biographer.
Manetti's insistence upon Brunelleschi's authorship of and dedica-
tion to the cupola project is of course supported by myriad documents
77 Manetti 1976, 79, 81, 89. Cf. Cupola , II-1-75, c. 46a; II-1-74, c. 4va. The international
composition of the consultants is characteristically amplified in Vasari 1971, 154-155 (both re-
dactions).
78 Provenances can be easily traced in Cupola , Indices, Surnames etc., Provenances.
79 Cupola , II-2-1, c. 122vf. A list of workers reinstated a year later, in February 143 1 (c. 138a)
contains, among many familiar names, the sole appearance of a certain Giovanni di Francesco
"dellamano," possibily a garbled version of "della Magna" or Germany, a term also used in a
broad sense to refer to foreigners from the north. In 1423 an unskilled laborer called Agnolino
della Magnia received a contribution from the Opera to go to the baths after a debilitating injury
on the job: II-4-9, c. 57a.
80 Manetti 1976, 95, with reference to the crane model, "Fecene anche modello uno
maestro Antonio da Vercelli; ma piacque più quello di Filippo": Cupola , II-1-80, c. 73e for
the pulley; II- 1-82, c. 72i, Antonio's crane model paid 1 florin; other devices in II-4-9, cc. 42a,
70a. Cf. II-1-82, c. 72h, Brunelleschi's "inventione castelleorum pro collis pro cupola magnia"
rewarded with 10 florins. Vasari 1971, 173-174, elaborates on Manetti's account, describing
"maestro Antonio" and others as having been introduced into competition with Brunelleschi
at all stages by stubborn and poorly informed supporters of Ghiberti.
81 Cupola , II- 1-84, c. 44vf; cf. the 1418 competition bans, II- 1-74, c. 9va.
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MYTH AND MANAGEMENT
that record the architect's involvement in consultations, models, con-

tracts, purchases, disputes, and the control of supplies, as well as in
the invention and constant revision of ingenious machines for the ex-
traordinary work conditions.82 But the author's desire to demonstrate
the heroism of his protagonist necessarily diminishes the contributions
of others. The workers are portrayed as conservative and slow-witted in
understanding the complex specifications of components designed by
Filippo, timorous and accident-prone in the high reaches of the rising
walls.83 This is a workforce that for sixteen years inhabited the upper
reaches of a building project without precedent, starting 54 meter
above the ground and rising another 33, while inclining its self-sustain-
ing double vaults over the 45 -meter- wide central void. Its leader, the
competent and trustworthy Opera foreman Battista d'Antonio, con
standy at Brunelleschi's side, is never mentioned in the Lives of the ar-
chitect.84 The rank and file encompassed such assiduous maste
builders as the best-paid and appropriately named Perfetto di Giovan-
ni, or such versatile and enterprising workmen as Jacopo di Sandro
singled out in a recent study as a figure representative of the excep-
tional qualities of the cathedral workmen (Fig. 6). 85 Jacopo possessed
both supervisory skills, often serving as special foreman over parts of
the work crew, and courage, certainly required for the lighting of
torches on the outer shell of the dome on festival occasions; he con
tracted for wood and marble supplies and, in the last year of the cupola
effort, was appointed supervisor for the construction of the fortress,
designed by Brunelleschi, in Vico Pisano.
References to highly qualified workers abound. See, for example,
the justifications for permanent salary increases in May 1425 in favor
of the smith Piero di Francesco, considering his huge workload ("la
82 The references are too numerous to be reviewed here, but it can be pointed out how
the online edition permits a rough quantification of much of the material. A search in Cupol
by Topics, Personnel gives access not only to the appointment and payment records alread
mentioned but also to the category other mentions - internal, containing over 5,000 documents
about activities especially mentioned by standing officers of the Opera. Sorted by specification
text, the 105 mentions for Filippo di ser Brunellesco (and another four under his nicknam
Pippo) appear in alphabetical order. These can be compared to 3 1 such references for Lorenz
di Bartolo/Bartoluccio (and his diminutive Nencio). The proportion is not far different from
that of the two supervisors' salaries as differentiated after 1425.
83 Manetti 1976, 92, 97-98.
84 Manetti 1976, Vasari 1971. Modern scholarship has long since rehabilitated him.
85 Battista in Haines and Battista 2006, 52-58, and forthcoming.
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MARGARET HAINES
borem inmensum") and his intelligence and usefulness ("eius subtilita-

tem et utilitatem maximam"), and of the carpenter Ghino di Piero, de-
clared the most precious person at the Opera and intelligent, industri-
ous, and hard-working ("homo subtilis et industriosus et valde
faticabilis in eius exercitio").86 In 1427 the skill and courage of three
stonecutters who worked daily in conditions of real danger, suspended
from the walls of the cupola, were compensated with increased, fixed
wages of 20 soldi per day.87 Even some of the manual laborers emerge
from the rich documentation with their individual virtues and person-
alities. Piero Sanza Paura must have earned his fearless epithet, while
Martino della Calcina, who brewed the high-quality mortar that held
the structure together, even if under the "maravigliosa" supervision
Manetti claims for Brunelleschi, probably deserves as much credit as
the bricklayers he served. The "heroic" architect undoubtedly had
one of the most highly qualified workforces of the time at his disposal
for the realization of his innovations and inventions.
The Opera officials
At the other end of the socioeconomic scale, the Opera was direc-
ted by prominent merchant statesmen, selected from the members of
the powerful Wool Guild which, since 1331, had been charged by
the Commune of Florence with the administration of the new cathe-
dral construction. Called operai, these wardens served brief, rotating
terms and reported back to the Wool Guild consuls, who maintained
jurisdiction over certain important matters. The Opera staff included
a treasurer, drawn from the guild membership for a semester of ser-
vice, as well as professional salaried personnel, especially the notary-
scribe and the administrative provveditore, or purveyor, as well as a
paymaster and messengers, debt collectors, and other occasional of-
ficials.88
86 Cupola , II- 1-86, cc. 16a, 16b.

87 Cupola , II-2-1, c. 67 va. One of these, Nanni di Berto called "Ferro," received another
raise to 22 soldi for the same reason in 1432: II-2-1, c. 164f.
88 On the structure of the Opera see Haines 1996, 267-294. For the cupola period, Ga-
briella Battista has contributed in-depth profiles of the salaried administrators: Battista 2012.
An Italian translation of the doctoral thesis of Andreas Grote (Grote 2009) reproposes that
pioneering study of the prehistory and early history of the institution.
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MYTH AND MANAGEMENT
On the eve of the dome construction campaign in 1419, the gui

instituted the magistracy of the four cupola officials ( ufficiali della c
pola), expressly nominated from its most qualified members to monito
this greatest challenge in the building of Santa Maria del Fiore.89 Th
first group was praised at the end of the year for its excellent servi
and renewed in office for three annual terms; its successors constitut
a tight group of competent and prominent citizens and authoritative
counselors to the operai and guild consuls through the end of 14
when their duties were fused with those of another special committ
elected to oversee the sacristies and defend the Opera's authority in th
liturgical governance of the cathedral.
In Manetti's narrative the wardens are portrayed as prudent bu
skeptical bureaucrats, whose resistance Brunelleschi wore down w
his knowledge and eloquence, his diplomatic skills and patience, h
ability to demonstrate his proposals in small-scale structures.90 The f
cupola officials' voices seem to be heard in the Life not only as ufficia
but also through generic references to "citizens" called upon to advis
the consuls and operai. All of this directional elite is portrayed as bein
divided between supporters ("amici") either of Brunelleschi or Ghibe
ti, the Opera a locus of partisan struggle rather than a supervisory o
gan engaged in the concrete planning and building process.91 Such
subtext may underlie many of the decisions taken over the years, pa
ticularly those regarding the two cupola provveditori.92 And yet the d
ly records of the Opera show the wardens constantly involved in the
mundane matters of commissioning models and building materials, hi
ing and regulating personnel. The four cupola officials, with long
terms and a more focused mandate, must have been still more intense
in contact with the worksite and its supervisors as decisions were ham
mered out, although their own proceedings, if ever recorded, have n
been conserved in the Wool Guild or Opera archive.93
89 These and other special officials instituted by the guild to assist the operai in the ma
agement of major projects are studied in Haines 2008.
90 Manetti 1976, esp. 78-83.
91 Manetti 1976, passim, esp. 93-9 5.
92 Caroline Elam helpfully reminds me of the dissimulation of conflictual meetings in t
official records of many a self-respecting institution.
93 Occasional records of the cupola officials' activities are present in the general Op
books: see Cupola under Indices, Names and roles, Role strings. It is noteworthy that
weekly drawings of their preposto (delegate with powers for the whole magistracy) are exce
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MARGARET HAINES
Simone di Leonardo Strozzi provides an interesting example in the

Opera documentation of a competent exponent of both magistracies.
Charter member of the cupola officials, serving from 1419 to 1423,
he was also an operaio in the autumn of 1421, when he negotiated
the abrogation of a contract for sandstone beams for the base of the
cupola (Fig. 7). Although the original contract of October 1420 has
been lost and its amendment of April 1421, undersigned as required
by the wardens then in office, makes no mention of Strozzi, an exemp-
tion granted to the contractors the following July declares that Simone
negotiated the terms of the commission with the quarrymen. Those de-
tailed terms specified not only the dimensions and delivery schedule of
600 beams, but also the quality of stone from which they were to be
cut, of which not more than one-sixth could be of the less desirable
masso type. But when the first 89 beams arrived at the end of the
month, they were all of the poorer quality, accepted at discounted
prices. Strozzi and his colleagues on the cupola committee remained
actively involved in the matter, renegotiating with the contractors to ac-
cept masso beams beyond the prescribed quota at a further reduced
rate. Simone had simultaneously taken up office as warden when he re-
ceived the mandate to rescind the whole contract and settle up with the
suppliers, considering that the Opera had found other means of sup-
plying itself (namely, direct quarrying with its own personnel).94 Strozzi
was undoubtedly a savvy building patron and alert manager, probably
able to spot masso as well as any of the quarrymen.95 He was also a rea-
list and enjoyed the confidence of the small artisan enterprises with
which he dealt.
Perhaps the best example of an active and influential cupola official
is the hitherto scarcely known Giuliano di Tommaso di Guccio Marti-
ni, whom I have described as an Opera activist for his assiduous parti-
cipation in Opera tasks over decades.96 From 1419 to 1426 he served
tionally registered in the resolutions of the operai for the pivotal year 1425 up through the ac-
tivation of the new program in April 1426, indicating the importance attributed to the office in
this time of intense planning and probable tension between supporters of the two provveditori.
94 Cupola , II- 1-78, cc. 59va, 7 lve; II- 1-79, cc. 5a, 7va, 29a, 29vb.
95 He himself was a supplier of pietra forte building stone for the base of the dome, in
which the first pietra serena stone chain was embedded, and his companions in office selected
him to draw up the agreement with the lessee of the Montoliveto quarry: Cupola , II- 1-78,
c. 75 h; II- 1-79, c. 56c.
*> Haines 2008, 156, 158, tables 1-2.
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MYTH AND MANAGEMENT
five year-long terms as cupola official - the vital first four and the last,
beginning in 1426 when the revised cupola program was approved.
The original vernacular report, which, once ratified, was copied by
the notary in the official Opera books, had been composed and under-
signed by this cupola official, and its authors are named as Giuliano di
Tommaso, Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, and Battista d'Antonio.97 He also
served an overlapping term as operaio for four months beginning in
May 1426, during the crucial verification of the new herringbone ma-
sonry and other innovations in the construction of the rising vaults.98
Although the cautious and gradual decision-making procedures of
the Opera are presented by the mythmakers as a constraint on the in-
tellectual liberty of the cupola's inventor, they were not without bene-
fits for Brunelleschi himself. The Opera "bureaucracy," as I argued in
an earlier study, ultimately guaranteed the execution of the architect's
project, which, once approved, became binding and commanded the
force of the whole institution in its realization.99 What can be added
here, in the light of the complete Opera records, is that the special skills
of the institution constituted an essential ingredient in the successful
realization of the audacious project that it embraced. The administra-
tion of the vast and complex building site was a matter of financing,
accounting, organization, discipline, and rectitude. A directional elite,
an administration, and a workforce with proven experience in cathe-
dral planning and construction put a powerful tool at the disposition
of the innovative architect.
Building supplies and "brick mania"
The new sources have much to tell about the day-to-day material
history of the construction of the cupola of Santa Maria del Fiore,
and the process of analyzing them has just begun. For example, it is
now possible to consult the accounts that detail nomenclature, weights,
and prices of the manufactured iron components acquired over the
duration of the construction. The extensive presence of metal, both
grazing the surface of the inner vault and deeply embedded within
97 Cupola , II-2-1, c. 170vb.

98 ASF, Arte della Lana 39, Tratte, c. 9.
99 Haines 1989, 124-125.
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MARGARET HAINES
its masonry where neither form nor function can be ascertained by me-
tal detectors, cries out for comparison with the archival documenta-
tion.100 Detailed specifications of terminology, materials, and prices
for the components of the building machines are also now available
for verification against the reconstructions of these devices, based lar-
gely on post-Brunelleschian graphic sources.101 There is a vast docu-
mentation on the acquisition of building materials, from the supplies
of mortar and bricks to quarried stone and marble. Sample analyses
of two groups of documentation have yielded interesting results that
can be summarized here.
The first of these regards the ultimate stage of the realization of the
cupola, the closing ring (called serraglio or serratura , meaning "key-
stone" or "lock") constructed at its summit. This structure played a
crucial role in the statics of the dome, being devised to bind the two
shells together and lock in their thrusts while providing a strong and
rigid base for the lantern that was to rise over the central oculus. It em-
braced the fourth walkway and, like the other stone chains under the
walkways of the inner spaces between the two vaults, it was con-
structed of expressly cut interlocking stone beams. The full-scale wood
model of this structure, fabricated by Antonio di Manetto Ciaccheri in
the summer of 1432 to specifications of the provveditori and capomae-
stro and mounted "in the air" above the rising masonry, not only fixed
the octagonal shape and 10-braccia (ca. 5. 83 -meter) diameter of the
oculus opening, but treated the arrangement of its stone compo-
nents.102 After the Opera workforce was instituted in the Trassinaia
100 Cf. the excellent results attained for the mapping of the iron chains of the dome of St.
Peter's in a recent study where technological surveys are coordinated with the documentation
of metal supplies: Rocchi 2009, esp. 66-88. The first systematic search for metal elements in
the cupola of Santa Maria del Fiore was reported by Riccardo Dalla Negra, with the mapping
of rings and brackets, partly visible and partly sunk in the plaster of the sixteenth-century fres-
coes, identified as the anchoring for hanging scaffolding and for curvature templates applied in
the eight corners of the rising masonry: Dalla Negra 1995, 15-22. His recommendation that
such examinations continue in the space between the two shells after the removal of the metal
scaffolding mounted for the restoration of the dome's frescoes, has been taken up by Corazzi
and Conti 2011, 284-291, who report on previous and subsequent investigations with metal
detectors. The massive supply of lead documented throughout the dome's construction also
needs to be considered in relation the search for metallic substances in the cupola masonry.
101 Galluzzi 1996; Lamberini 1994a, 478, 486; and 1994b, 106-121.
102 Cupola , II-2-1, cc. 163a, 167g. Antonio received 5 florins in various payments for his
work on the model, including II-4-13, c. 43o, "chôme àno a stare le prietre de l'occhio della
lanterna." Graphic proposals for the structure of this area are in Ippolito 1997, fig. 22; Co-
razzi, Conti and Marini, 2005, Fig. 18.
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MYTH AND MANAGEMENT
quarry in 1421, replacing outside contractors in the execution of t

long beams (4 braccia = ca. 2.33 meters) of the first stone chain, spe-
cifications for stonework rarely appear in the Opera account books; 10
in fact the documentation concerning transport is often the only in
cation of the rate and quantity of supplies of structural sandstone o
the following decade. However, the serraglio presented extraordinary
demands that were met by special commissions to independent stone
cutters for its principal stone components.
Although no written contracts have survived, the collation of
documents regarding the acquisition of macigno from various suppli
permits detailed reconstruction of the procurement of the stone block
for the closing ring over the period 1432-36. 104 Not surprisingly most of
these pieces were ordered in multiples of eight, reflecting their symm
trical arrangement in the octagonal structure. Some are mounted
plain sight, such as the 16 oculi (diameter about 1 braccio, price 4 lir
each) that open onto the spaces between the two shells on either side
the eight stairways ascending the steep inner vaults above the th
walkway. Others are partially visible, such as the 128 exceptionally lon
beams (6 braccia = 3.48 meters), eventually supplied by two team
working separately in Trassinaia and Fiesole for prices at the quarry r
spectively of 6 lire 16 soldi and 6 lire. Sixty-four of these must corr
spond to the huge radial slabs, eight per segment, that form the visib
ceiling of the walkway and, as the documentation repeatedly states, th
base {piano) of the lantern (Fig. 8). Might the other 64, some of whic
were the very last deliveries in 1436, be mounted over them? The
prices and specifications can be compared with previous orders f
32 large blocks for the central oculus, paid at 3 lire 6 soldi each, abo
half the price of the big beams, and another 48 blocks paid at 2 li
whose position in the structure is not specified, all supplied in 14
and early 1433. Orders placed from 1434, besides the 6-braccia bea
and the round oculi, include 16 stone blocks for the closing, who
price of 5 lire per unit approaches that of the long beams, 18 bloc
for the cupola closing at 2 lire 17 soldi, and 24 or 16 big slabs ( lastron
worth 2 lire each. Hopefully this synthesis of the documentary data c
103 An exception is constituted by the commission for stone beams for the new, thi
chain in 1428-29, Cupola , II-2-1, c. 98vf; II-4-12, cc. 92g, 97i, 102vd, 106vc. The last three
refer to a transaction with a quarry in Fiesole.
104 Haines and Battista 2006, 59-71, and revised edition online 2012.
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MARGARET HAINES
serve not only to recognize the stones in evidence on the surface of the
closing ring, but also to probe the depths of its still enigmatic structure,
offering the possibility of verification and articulation of recent techno-
logical soundings in the interest of an authoritative interpretation of the
cupola's structure.
The contracted pieces were not the only stone supplies procured
during this period, and the documented presence of the Opera quarry
team at the Trassinaia quarry for the summer of 1432 and winter 1433-
34 indicates that the production of routine stonework carried on. How-
ever, the specially commissioned pieces for the closing ring involved ex-
traordinary challenges. The quarrying, finishing, transport, and empla-
cement of the 128 radial beams presented a daunting sequence of
logistic problems, from the search for macigno beds of the necessary
quality and dimensions to the hoisting of the oversized blocks through
the dome's central oculus, whose diameter had been further reduced
from 10 to 92/3 braccia (ca. 5.64 meters).105 Brunelleschi, undoubtedly
the principal inventor of the serraglio system, sometimes appears in the
records as the sole supplier of the stonework specifications, but he was
often joined in this role by Battista d'Antonio; and the operai them-
selves did not disdain to ride to the quarries with a barrel of wine to
celebrate the opening of the campaign, nor to negotiate the rental of
the quarry for its duration. This crowning achievement of the cupola
construction altogether escaped the attention of the architect's biogra-
phers, who seem to have been more fascinated with his struggles with
personal opponents than with the technical challenges of his monu-
mental feat.
The second sample analysis of building materials concerns the ac-
quisition of special, oversized flat bricks, called quadroni, employed
for the continuation of the dome above the base structure that was
built in traditional cut pietra forte limestone.106 The original building
program, a detailed recapitulation of Brunelleschi's specifications for
the realization of the cupola that became binding for the whole institu-
tion when it was copied into the official acts of the Opera and Guild in
ios Cupola, II-2-1, 201g, 25 June 1433.

106 A preliminary formulation of this material was presented in a lecture entitled "Mana-
ging Supplies for the Construction of Brunelleschi's Cupola at Santa Maria del Fiore" at the
conference "Building and Knowledge: Contributions to an Epistemic History of Early Modern
Italian Architecture," coordinated by Hermann Schlimme for the Bibliotheca Hertziana and
the Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte in Rome in September 2003.
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MYTH AND MANAGEMENT
1420, foresaw the changeover to brick, tufa, or some other mater

lighter than solid stone at the level of 24 braccia (ca. 14 meters) abov
the dome's base. In order to further reduce the weight of the risi
structure, this mark was lowered to 12 braccia (ca. 7 meters) in a pack
of amendments approved in March 1422. 107 Despite the uncertainty e
pressed in the first program, negotiation for an important commissio
for quadroni destined for the cupola had begun with one of the Oper
habitual kilnmen, Pardo da Volterra, in August 1418, before most
the competition models had been presented and two years before the
actual inception of the construction of the structure's stone base. An
agreement was finally reached in December 1418 with a contract f
200,000 units to be supplied over two years at the price of 19 li
per thousand, for which an advance of 200 florins (about one-fifth o
the total value of the commission) was immediately forthcoming.1
The awareness of the huge volume of material necessary for building
the "maggiore cupola" and of the long lead times of the comple
brick-manufacturing process must have prompted this early commit
ment.109 The risks to both parties emerged the following year in Se
tember, when the Opera informed Pardo that, since it had not be
107 Guasti knew the famous program of 1420 from the copy Manetti had made from
lost book of the Opera administrator, and he annotated his edition of its text with the varia
present in Vasari: Guasti 1857, doc. 51; cf. Manetti 1976, 85-88 and Vasari 1971, 160-1
Alfred Doren subsequently published a contemporary authenticated copy conserved in th
books of the Wool Guild: Doren 1898, 258-261. This precious document (ASF, Arte de
Lana 149, Atti e partiti, cc. 59v-60, registered under the date of 30 July 1420 but presuma
composed in the preceding months) will be integrated with the Cupola database only if,
would be natural, the project can be extended to the acts of the mother institution of the O
era. The amendments approved on 13 March 1422, which had been redacted, like the 1
revisions, in the hand of that most diligent of Cupola officials, Giuliano di Tommaso di Gucc
Martini, are in Cupola , II- 1-80, c. 17va.
108 Cupola , II-1-74, cc. 5a, 19vg, 29vf, 44d, 53b. Some of the quadroni documentatio
was presented by Saalman 1980, 78, 114, 197-198, but the unsystematic selection of te
for citation and study prevented him from telling the crisis story that follows here.
109 The exceptional scale of the cupola contracts tabulated in the following paragrap
emerges in comparison to the data available for other worksites of the Florentine Quattrocen
For example, the largest contract known to Goldthwaite (1980, 185) was for 50,000 bricks
five months' time for the convent of San Miniato in 1446; the maximum annual delivery fro
one supplier to the massive Palazzo Strozzi never exceeds this amount. Goldthwaite (19
171-212) describes the Florentine brickmaking industry as characterized by high operati
costs, complex organizational requirements and low profit margins. Although the first of
to Pardo involved an exclusive clause which was subsequently dropped, the requirements
the cathedral's dome were exceptional and potentially monopolizing of a kiln's output
the duration of the pact.
81
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MARGARET HAINES
decided whether the cupola should be made of brick or other material,

he should produce no further bricks beyond those already fired or
molded. At the end of 1419 he was awarded a small partial payment
as well as compensation for six months' rent on the kiln paid to the ab-
bot of Settimo while production was suspended. After another advance
in April 1420, a go-ahead to complete the order was issued in May
1420, but by the end of the year he had delivered just 20,950 bricks,
duly paid for, leaving the advances on the books.110
The decision in favor of brick, never explicitly recorded, must have
been reached by January 1421, when the operai, considering that a very
great ("maxima") quantity of quadroni was required for the dome,
commissioned another kilnman, Antonio "Ferro" from Campi, to sup-
ply 1.2 million units over six years' time at the higher price of 20 lire
per thousand. By April Pardo had renegotiated his contract, raising
the price to 19 lire per thousand for 200,000 per year over a five-year
period, for a total of another million units. Despite this increase, still
more bricks were needed, it was said, and a new commission was
awarded for 500,000 units over five years at the same price to four part-
ners in a kiln at Lastra. In September, constrained to reduce his com-
mitment following the death of his father, Cambio di Antonio Ferro re-
negotiated to furnish 300,000 quadroni over five years, and an old
supplier, Bartolo di Marco da Campi, signed on for 240,000 in four
years, both at 20 lire per thousand. At this point the outstanding orders
for bricks totalled 2,040,000, scheduled to be delivered at 420,000 per
year for the next four years and 360,000 for the fifth, but even this diz-
zying total did not seem sufficient. At the close of the year the wardens
empowered their administrator to contract for additional commitments
with the Lastra partners and Pardo.111 In 1421 Pardo alone had re-
ceived over 3,000 lire in advances and payments for deliveries.112
Brick mania seems to have seized the Opera planners as the revi-
sions to the building program, making the changeover from stone to
brick construction doubly imminent, were being considered and finally
approved in March 1422. In February the Lastra kiln's contract was in-
creased by 50,000 per year for four years: 200,000 more units. Still
110 Cupola, II-1-76, c. 15a; II- 1 -77 , cc. 52d, 52ve, 66vc, 40e; II-4-8, c. 94vd.
111 Cupola , II-1-78, cc. 57b, 60va, 27a, 62c; II-1-79, cc. 57a, 58b, 48va, 50e.
112 Cupola , II-1-78, cc. 69e, 71vb, 75vi; II-1-79, cc. 65a, 68va, 70d, 70e, 72va, 74d, 77c,
91ve.
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MYTH AND MANAGEMENT
more bricks were needed, and the enterprising Pardo was judged to b
capable of doubling his production to 400,000 per year for the ne
four years: an increase of 800,000 units, making the unprecedented t
tal for a single contractor of 1.6 million units, for which the agreeme
was finally ratified in May with a price increase to 193/4 lire per tho
sand and a handsome advance of 500 florins, including 300 already re
ceived on the previous contract.113 This was the last escalation in br
orders before the problems with the quality and size of bricks that h
begun to pour in to the Opera brought the whole supply chain to a ha
in the summer of 1422. Calculation of the myriad and complex docu-
mentation for payments and deliveries of quadroni destined for the c
pola through May 1422 reveals that 8,745 lire had been paid to the fo
contractors, over half of it as advances, and only 189,183 bricks deli
ered, less than Pardo's first contract of 1418.
All of the contracts issued had specified bricks to be made of the
clay- rich earth of Settimo, Campi, and Lastra114 and delivered at th
maker's expense to the worksite, properly fired, conforming in s
and shape to the model supplied by the Opera; and all orders included
the standard percentage (2 percent) of corner pieces {angoli). Wood
forms, called modani, sometimes reinforced with metal casing, w
produced throughout the cupola years, and eight such models are sti
conserved in the Opera museum, including four corner forms with t
135° angle corresponding to the dome's octagonal plan (Fig. 9). 115 Al
113 Cupola , II- 1-80, cc. 55v a, 26va, 58va.

114 This specification is fully compatible with the findings reported for microscopic exam
ination of the brick samples taken above the first walkway of the cupola, said to indicate at le
three different sites of clay supply, all thought to be in the highest-quality Pliocene deposit
the area of Signa: Bardi et al. 1986, 54, 66. It should be observed that no building bricks f
the cupola came from Impruneta, although the fame currently enjoyed by that production c
ter has inspired statements to that effect: cf. Morolli 2009, 135 n. 26. In the Cupola datab
Impruneta appears instead as the nearly exclusive source of roof tiles ( embrici ) for the trib
vaults, the papal apartments, and other unspecified destinations. Such systematic choices
the part of the Opera reflect consolidated convictions about the different virtues of the
kinds of clay. The Opera's own urban kiln in via Ghibellina produced ordinary bricks for oth
applications, including Brunelleschi's scale model of the dome, but not quadroni for the cupo
In this case the selection is presumably related to the convenience and size of the kiln.
115 Although it is unlikely that the extant models are to be dated centuries after the cupo
effort, as has sometimes been proposed, there is no certainty of their relationship to individ
contracts or actual bricks in the structure. The four rectangular forms present the follow
internal measurements, in ascending order expressed in centimeters: 37.2x18.5x5.5
39.5 X 20.5 X 5.5; 49 x 24 x 5.5; 49.3 x 26 x 6. The four corner forms have more complex
mensions: the longest side ranging 30 to 32.5, the width 17 to 19.5, the height 7 to 7.5. Th
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MARGARET HAINES
these specifications seem to derive from procedures consolidated dur-

ing the construction of the cloister vaults of the three tribune arms.116
Modest discounts on shipments of quadroni delivered through early
1422 regarded imperfect firing, excessive breakage, and insufficient
size, but nothing suggested the scale of defects soon to be contested.
The first reference to the dispute between the Opera and the kiln-
men over the specifications for quadroni appears in a resolution of 17
July 1422 to convoke the wardens who had been in office in the first
four months of 1421, when three major contracts were awarded, to-
gether with Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, and Battista d'Antonio, in order
to quantify the damage caused to the Opera by the delivery of defective
bricks. The group gathered (with the exception of Ghiberti, who had
been consulted separately) and declared that the many of the bricks in
stock did not conform to the valid model, which they identified with a
wood modano conserved in the Opera.117 Considering that the bricks
actually delivered varied in weight from 11 pounds 5 ounces to 14
pounds, the consultants recommended that the matter of price adjust-
of the models were present in the exhibition II cotto dell' Impruneta' see Bertoncini Sabatini
2009 (cat. III.6: 145), stating that two rectangular forms would have produced bricks measuring
about 39 X 20 and 50 x 25 cm, loosely related to the second, third, and fourth cited above.
116 A 1409 contract for bricks for the second tribune vault, for example, specifies corner
bricks according to forms to be supplied by the Opera: Guasti 1887, doc. 454. The numerous
expenditures for modani documented in the Cupola edition under Topics, Objects, models/de-
signs include angular forms acquired in 1417 and 1418, well before the initiation of the cupola
campaign and so presumably destined for the third and final tribune vault, then under con-
struction: II-4-8, cc. 3va, 30va.
Recent studies that have pointed out the absence of angular bricks providing continuity in
the dome masonry at the convergence point of the corner piers are based on observations made
above the second walkway, where the fitting of standard corner pieces in the progressively in-
clined brickwork would have been impractical. The masonry under the second walkway, for
which their purchase is documented and their use feasible, has not been examined from this
point of view. Cf. Dalla Negra 1995, 24-26; Corazzi, Conti and Marini (2005, 11, n. 34)
inexplicably state that the documents consulted in the Cupola database never mention special
bricks, while citing contracts specifying just such angoli', ibid., 1 nn. 25-26. See Fanelli 2004,
207 for the problems of laying radial masonry with angular bricks.
117 Copies of this prototype had been distributed to the all the suppliers as mentioned in
their contracts. The actual working forms necessary to produce the desired dimensions after
shrinkage during the drying and firing process would have been proportionally larger, depend-
ing upon the composition of the clay employed and maximum firing temperature, cf. Rovida
1996, 47, 57. The 1544 statutes of the Florentine Università dei Fabbricanti contemplated in-
creased dimensions of the working modani with respect to standard specifications when the
clay employed was particularly subject to shrinkage. They also refer to official metal forms
ua uso di modani" chained in the guild office for verification of the fired, finished products:
Rovida 1996, 38-39.
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MYTH AND MANAGEMENT
ment be referred to professional builders and brickmakers, and they

suggested that manufacturing quadroni of the exact dimensions re-
quired would enable just arbitration of the shortfalls by weight compar
ison.118
For whatever reasons, the operai did not follow this advice but
decided upon an across-the-board price reduction of all the stock by
25 percent or to 15 lire per thousand, the only mitigating factor being
that the reduction was not cumulative with the other discounts already
applied. The ratification of the guild consuls required for the revoca-
tion of existing agreements was promptly forthcoming on 7 August.
At the same time it was decided not to accept any future shipments that
did not conform to the model specifications.119 More drastic steps were
taken the following week with authorizations to negotiate new con-
tracts for quadroni and rescind the existing ones. The first victim of this
hard-line stance was Pardo, who saw his lease of the kiln at Settimo
cancelled by the Opera, although his brick contract remained in force.
Simultaneously the Opera awarded a new contract to Antonio di Van-
nozzo for at least 600,000 pieces to be fired in the same kiln over three
years as soon as Pardo's rights expired in April 1423. Not surprisingly
the new contract insisted upon the bricks' dimensions, which would be
transmitted in the form of a modano marked with the Opera's seals,
and it is also the first agreement to specify that the clay be not only well
fired but also well seasoned. Corner bricks are no longer specified, a
change which would characterize all future orders. A generous 500-
118 Cupola , II- 1-81, cc. 5d, 6vb. Nowhere in the Opera documentation are the exact mea-
surements of bricks expressed in numbers, but only by reference to the models for the various
types. This practice differs, for example, from the specifications for stonework, normally ex-
pressed in Florentine braccia, or for marble, normally by weight and/or format. The lack of
real measurements of the brickwork under the second walkway, which is largely covered by
plaster, prevents estimation of the dimensions of the first modano and appreciation of the range
of defectiveness accepted and employed in the building fabric. For measurements taken in the
higher reaches of the dome, see note 133.
Although the quadroni employed in the cathedral represented a special, oversized format
compared to the standard bricks on the Florentine market ( mattoni , mezzane , quadrucci , etc.),
the definition of dimensions by reference to model forms was normal practice throughout the
period, and pricing by number inevitably encouraged skimping on the form size. For a useful
entry to the specialized literature on the mensiochronology of kiln products in Tuscany, see the
acts of the conference La brique antique et médiévale 2000, especially the papers of Parenti
and Quirós Castillo (2000, 219-235) and Balestracci (2000, 417-428); see also Quiros
Castillo 2003, 388-402.
119 Cupola , II- 1-81, cc. 8b, 8va, lOva, lOvb.
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MARGARET HAINES
florin advance was offered, but the price per thousand had fallen to 19
lire.120
The contested brickmakers, Pardo, Ferro, Bartolo di Marco, and
the Lastra group, still received payments in September and early Octo-
ber, round sums without accounting details totaling 1,600 lire, presum-
ably against the minimum worth of the defective shipments. Mean-
while, the moment for the passage to brick construction was fast
approaching; vats were being prepared for soaking bricks and rein-
forced tubs for hauling them up to the worksite. On 21 October
1422 bricklaying began above the level of the lintels of the first walk-
way (Fig. 10), and the Opera offered a barrel of wine to the workers
to celebrate the occasion.121 However, the sudden and resounding si-
lence of the documents on quadroni in the following months betrays
the precariousness of the supply system for this new phase of construc-
tion. Whatever their failings, the kilnmen could not be expected to ac-
quiesce to the unilateral slashing of their earnings on production that
required long-term investment and entrepreneurial commitment.
In the end, the neglected advice of the first advisory committee to test
the cost basis of production seems to have been the factor that contrib-
uted to the resolution of the quadroni standoff. An experimental firing,
carried out in March 1423 at the Lastra kiln under the direction of the
enterprising Opera workman, Jacopo di Sandro, is documented in a
cache of payments that detail expenses for the purchase of 16,000 raw
units and their firing, totaling over 190 lire.122 Although other costs, such
as kiln overhead and transportation, contributed to the price of the cupo-
la's quadroni, the results of this trial were sufficient to enable the conclu-
sion that imposed cuts had been excessive. If bricks of the required di-
mensions could not be produced at the prices and delivery rates
demanded by the Opera, once again the pacts had to be modified. The
operative words in the wardens' decision of 23 April to revoke Antonio
di Vannozzo's substitute contract and reinstate Pardo at a compromise
price were the damage ("detrimentum") to both the Opera and the kiln-
men caused by the controversy and the need to reach a constructive solu-
tion ("salubriter providere") for the completion of the cupola.123
120 Cupola , II-1-81, cc. lOvc, lie, 13va, 56a.

121 Cupola , II-1-81, cc. 72a, 72b, 72d, 72f, 73d, 73h, 73vd; II-4-9, c. 40vd.
122 Cupola , II- 1-82, cc. 70va, 70vb, 70vd, 70ve, 70vf, 70vg, 70vh, 71a, 71b, 71c.
123 Cupola , II- 1-82, c. 12a.
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MYTH AND MANAGEMENT
The ratification of this conciliatory policy, which had been man-

dated by the guild consuls, is contained in the joint resolution of both
offices taken five days later. This is a remarkable document that reca-
pitulates the long story of the dispute and articulates the Opera's dual
priorities: first, to bring the cupola to its ultimate perfection and, sec-
ond, to pay a just price to suppliers. Both the advice of experts and th
results of the firing experiment argued that the contractors could not
afford ("non possunt cum eorum salvatione") to supply bricks at th
reduced price, nor indeed could the overextended Pardo be expecte
to respect his quota of 400,000 units per year ("ad impossibile nem
tenetur"). The commission to Pardo together with his former guaran-
tor, Gherardo Canneri, was reformulated: the price was reduced to 18
lire per thousand, the delivery schedule to 150,000 per year, the ad
vance from 500 to 187 florins. No precaution being too great to obtain
the desired product, the mandatory measurements were drawn on
sheet of parchment attached to the contract and carved in a specimen
cased in iron, chained to the wall of the Opera audience hall. The
brickmakers humbly accepted ("humiliter ratificaverunt") this compro-
mise pact.124
Pardo's solution would be the model for dealing with the other col-
leagues, the revision of whose contracts, with a price ceiling of 18 lire
per thousand, was immediately authorized by the consuls; and indeed
on the same day the wardens rewrote the agreement with the Lastra
partners.125 Their annual quota fell from 150,000 to 70,000, their price
from 19 lire to 18, applicable even to bricks already manufactured but
not yet consigned. In June the contracts of the two brickmakers a
Campi, Cambio di Ferro and Bartolo di Marco, were both halved from
60,000 to 30,000 per year for four years and the now standard price o
18 lire per thousand applied.126 Regular and substantial payments to all
four reinstated contractors show that the great initial brick crisis of th
"cupola maggiore" had been put to rest and that vital supplies of build
ing materials were once again feeding the construction effort.127
124 Cupola , II- 1-82, c. 13a.

125 Cupola , II- 1-82, cc. 15b, 15va.
126 Cupola , II-1-82, cc. 19b, 19va.
127 Cupola , II- 1-82, cc. 72va, 72vb, 72vc, 7 5e, 75f, 15 va, 77a, 77b; II- 1-83, cc. 66b, 68d,
68e, 70e 71a, 71c, 71vh. The payments for quadroni in 1423, taking into account the reductio
on advances amortized against deliveries, totaled 6,076 lire 12 soldi 5 denari. Over two-third
of this amount went to Pardo da Volterra, consistently the biggest supplier.
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MARGARET HAINES
The whole episode is an interesting example of mismanagement, in-

volving unrealistic demands on suppliers prompted by poorly esti-
mated consumption and construction rates, and of its correction within
the structures of the institution itself. In fact, there was little reason to
flood the work yard with huge stocks of bricks when, as we have seen,
financial restrictions limited the workforce and other resources, but
steady deliveries were essential for the smooth progress of work. It
should be noticed that Brunelleschi's name occurs just once in the hun-
dreds of written acts that tell the story of the cupola quadroni through
1423. Although Manetti gives all the credit for monitoring supplies to
his hero Filippo, declaring that not a single brick was laid that he had
not personally inspected for proper shape and firing,128 the Opera
sources tell a choral story, in which the entire administrative hierarchy
was involved in procuring supplies of the quality and cost determined
to be necessary and honorable for a public institution.
However, as in other contexts, the myth contains elements of truth
that are useful in interpreting the administrative sources. If payments
and deliveries of the standard broad bricks continued at a brisk pace
through 1424, it may not come as a surprise that an interruption of
quadroni supplies is recorded for the second semester of 1425, while
the building program was under review and the contest between the
dual provveditori under scrutiny. The recasting of supervisory roles that
resulted, with Brunelleschi in the dominant position, corresponds to his
constant presence and increased authority in the daily running of the
worksite, down to the matter of the bricks, which became more com-
plex with the introduction of herringbone masonry (Fig. 11). New
forms and dimensions were required, and in August 1426 for the first
time the wardens empowered Brunelleschi, called "solicitor of the great
cupola," to contract out directly for new and larger quadroni, at the
prices and terms he deemed advantageous for the Opera.129 A trial fir-
ing for this new type, whose projected weight at 25-30 pounds was over
twice that reported for the old format, was under way for most of the
year at the Settimo kiln, no doubt with the intention of determining the
specifications and price of this exceptional product.130 The go-ahead is-
128 Manetti 1976, 98-99.

129 Cupola, II-2-1, c. 40va.
130 Cupola, II-2-1, c. 170vb; II-4-12, cc. lOve, 14a, 23vb, 18c, 29a. Cf. Fanelli 2004, 189,
where this weight is inexplicably connected to the smaller herringbone bricks (22 x22 x5).
88

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MYTH AND MANAGEMENT
sued in January 1427 to the Opera administrator to commission n

quadroni grandi (also called tabelloni, alluding to their large, flat for
at the hefty price of 42 lire per thousand with the requirement of a
minimum weight of 25 pounds, certifies the authority of Filipp
named as the person who will provide the forms and instructions.131
Breakage of these oversized bricks immediately seemed so inevitab
that it was decided to accept and pay for broken tabelloni amounting
to up to 10 percent of each shipment.132 If such a provision points t
careful surveillance at the worksite, it also reveals greater flexibility
in the acceptance of materials than the myth allows.
Ample supplies of this new large format, alongside orders accordin
to the old specifications, are documented from familiar kilnmen and
new contractors in the next years. If a real count of all the quadroni r
ceived for the cupola is now feasible with the complete edition, that
not the intention in the present essay, which is rather to indicate com
plexity of the question, in the face of changing formats and unrecord
dimensions that invite systematic comparison with data that can
gleaned from the construction itself.133 The range of brick types doc
mented is further enriched, at the top level of the cupola over the thi
walkway, with the introduction in 143 1 of yet another format, the m
dle-sized quadrone. At this point the price of the old-type smaller pie
sometimes fell below the standard 18 lire per thousand, and that
both large and medium formats, if always the same in any given con
tract indicating comparable cost of production if not size, varied be-
131 Cupola , II-2-1, c. 49va. In the past, the administrator and foreman had provided spe
cifications.
132 Cupola , II-2-1, c. 65 va.
133 A contribution to the knowledge of the brick composition of the cupola shells, largely
concealed not only by the frescoes that decorate the inner surface of the dome but also by plas-
ter applied to the surfaces between the two shells and by tiles on the outside, was made during
the restoration of the frescoes in 1989-95. The brickwork, temporarily exposed for reasons of
conservation in four zones above the third walkway, was examined and recorded in direct casts,
while endoscopic soundings in the same areas probed the projection of the various bricks in the
depth of the inner shell (Fig. 11). Although a variety of dimensions was observed, the predo-
minant formats were determined to be, in centimeters, 28 x 22 and 22 x 22 in the vertical her-
ringbone courses and 44 x 22 and 34 x 17 in the corda blanda courses laid between them (the
opposite of the expected applications), all with a thickness of 4 .5-5 cm: Dalla Negra 1995,
22-26. As is well known, the smooth brick surfaces displayed on the piers and other parts
of the corridor between the two shells, with their precisely fitted joints, appear to be superficial
and cosmetic, while the patches of brickwork unintentionally exposed by loss of plaster on the
extrados of the inner shell correspond to the rougher-laid masonry with thick mortar joints ob-
served by Dalla Negra in the intrados of the inner shell.
89

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MARGARET HAINES
tween 40 and 39 lire.134 Brunelleschi and Battista d'Antonio are cited as

having advised awarding these new contracts, and one can suppose that
the challenges presented by the last, vertiginous stretch of steeply in-
clined masonry reaching out over the void of the cathedral's crossing
inspired ever greater refinement of the bricklaying techniques. The
pairing of Brunelleschi as supervisor and Battista as foreman epito-
mized the team skills that contributed to the appropriate solutions.
Support for the genius
The voice speaking in the sources gathered in The Years of the Cu-
pola is not that of the inventor, but of the administrative structure that
managed the realization of his project or, better, myriad projects, for
the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore. It is to be expected that this nar-
rator should tell a different story from that related in more or less ima-
ginative reconstructions of the protagonist's words, as they have come
down to us through the heroizing tradition. Although the institutional
documentation may cast light on that tradition, seen as a whole it has
a different reality to recount which, rather than disclaiming the story
of the misunderstood genius, tells about the sustained daily effort of
those who accompanied him to his ultimate success. This is not the
place to plead for the virtue or interest of such a perspective, nor
to insist that historical "truth" is contained in this or any other doc-
umentary account. However, the importance of the reality recounted
here can perhaps best be grasped by a comparison of the achievement
of the great cupola to the non-successes in the career of Filippo Bru-
nelleschi.
It has already been seen that Brunelleschi's scheme to flood the city
of Lucca backfired not because his concept and calculations were erro-
neous, but because he was unable to control the conditions of realiza-
tion of the specified works on the battlefield. Another egregious failure,
passed over in silence by the architect's partisan biographers although
it was directly connected to the cupola effort, also occured in a situa-
tion in which Brunelleschi was operating outside the supportive struc-
tures of the Opera del Duomo worksite. This was Filippo's revolution-
ary river vessel, designed to convey Carrara marble up the Arno from
134 Examples in Cupola, II-2-1, cc. 140vd, 158c.
90

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MYTH AND MANAGEMENT
Pisa to the river port at Signa near Florence.135 Already in 1421, the
chitect had obtained a pioneering patent from the Commune of Flor
ence for exclusive use of the invention for three years.136 At that time it
was described as a machine or ship ("quoddam heditifium seu nav
genus") capable of transporting any cargo in all seasons on the Arno
other waters at lower cost than usual and with other benefits for mer
chants. The project for the oversized craft, nicknamed "il Badalon
was the object of a polemical exchange of sonnets between the cupola
architect and his acrimonious rival and challenger, Giovanni da Prato
thought to date to or before the crisis year of 1425. 137 The vessel see
to have become a reality only in 1427 in response to the urgent need f
marble blocks for the great white ribs of the rising cupola, when it
brief career is documented in the registers of the Opera del Duom
Filippo here appears not in his role as salaried Opera official with con
solidated authority over the cupola project, but as an outside contrac
tor, competing with the bargemen, who plied the course of the lowe
Arno in the erratic moments when the water was sufficient to float their
cargoes, and otherwise with the more costly carters, who drove t
loads overland in their oxcarts.
Once again, although some documents concerning this ventur
have long been published and studied, the complete Opera sourc
supply the depth and contextualization essential to their correct inte
pretation. For example, the authorization on 12 June 1427 to contrac
to Brunelleschi the shipment of 100,000 pounds of marble from Pisa
the Opera contains important specifications not included in the sum-
mary provided by Guasti: the shipment was to take place at the heig
of the dry season, half in July and half in August, and the price was n
135 The basic study remains the thoughtful if ideological essay by Prager and Scagli
1970, 111-134. Transport in the lower Arno valley in the early Renaissance is a subject t
has received some attention in the literature, fueled by the interest for Michelangelo's famo
marble supplies for the façade and new sacristy of San Lorenzo. Nevertheless much is still un
certain, including the actual course and degree of navigability of the river in the fifteenth ce
tury, the aspect of the various cargo vessels, and the mixture of forces that drove them up
current. The recent publication of Ferretti and Turrini 2010 provides the appropriate bib
graphy.
136 The 19 June 1421 provvisione , approved by a majority of 218 to 7 in the city council,
was published in Gaye 1839, Appendice II, pp. 547-549.
137 Brunelleschi 1977, sonnets I and II, 21-22, and relative commentary, 6-9. Giovanni
ridicules Filippo's "Badalon che in acqua vola." This term, probably carrying derogatory and
ironic overtones, is found in the Opera documents only after the failure of the enterprise.
91

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MARGARET HAINES
as has been affirmed, less than land transportation but, at 4 lire 14 soldi
per thousand weight, slighdy more than the standard rate allowed for
carters in this period. This generous offer to the entrepreneurial inven-
tor, accompanied by advances totaling 55 florins (nearly half of the va-
lue of the contract), was justified both by the impossibility of normal
river barge transport in the summer and the pressing need for marble
so that construction could proceed.138 It was a short-lived gamble, and
doubts about its success are written into the pact, which would be
automatically invalidated if delivery was not made on schedule, as in-
deed it was not.
The failure may have been almost immediate, since advance pay-
ments were being distributed to carters to bring marble from Pisa from
early July 1427, and their deliveries for a total of 164,738 pounds are
recorded at the rate of 4 lire 10 soldi per thousand through the follow-
ing December.139 The defaulting Filippo, however, was treated with de-
licacy by the Opera. In September the Opera had to order a replace-
ment for the rope lent to him "pro suis navibus," but allowed a
moratorium in determining the cost for which he would be held re-
sponsible; on 4 December 1427 it issued Brunelleschi a renewed con-
tract to transport marble, including that already halfway up the river,
this time at the same rates as ground transport, to be delivered by 15
January of the new year.140 The new pact was justified not only, as be-
fore, by the Opera's need of marble, but also as a "subsidy for the in-
vention of his boat, which would bring the greatest honor and benefit
to the Commune." This lofty theme, recalling the rhetoric of the origi-
138 Cupola , II-2-1, c. 61c: "actendentes quod isto tempore extivo marmorem album con-
duci non potest propter penuriam acque Arni et quod Opera indiget maxima quantitate mar-
moris dicto tempore alias redundarei in maximum dampnum et verecundiam diete Opere" -
passage not present in Guasti 1857, doc. 107. The advances are recorded in II-4-12, cc. 43 vf
and 45 ve. Prager and Scaglia (1970, 120) incorrecdy compare the rate allowed Brunelleschi
for transport of marble from Pisa to the cathedral worksite with the prices agreed upon with
the marble contractors for complete supply from the Carrara quarries to the Opera, at 7 lire 10
soldi per thousand weight if shipped by water, or 2 lire 6 soldi more if by land. This misunder-
standing has been repeated in all the subsequent literature. In all considerations of price per
weight, it should be recalled that the pre-metric Tuscan pound (0.3395 kilos) was considerably
lighter than the modern pound (0.4636 kilos).
139 Cupola , II-4-12, cc. 53d-53l, 3 July 1427; II-2-1, c. 63va, 14 July 1427; c. 64d, 5 Au-
gust 1427; c. 65vf, 21 August 1427; c. 67 vb, 12 September 1427; c. 69e, 10 October 1427;
c. 69vm, 20 October 1427 ; II-4-12, cc. 63vd-63vg, 19 December 1427; cc. 64a-64g, 23 December
1427.
140 Cupola , II-2-1, c. 68ve; c. 72 vi, both acts unknown before the online edition.
92

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MYTH AND MANAGEMENT
nal patent, had already been aired in two decrees of the previous
spring, when leave of absence without loss of salary had been granted
to the cupola's architect and instructions to assist Filippo in every way
sent to the Podestà of the Arno valley town of Castelfranco.141 The Op-
era was evidently prepared to make allowances for its proven architect
and for a project marketed as prestigious and compatible with the in-
stitution's civic identity.
Nevertheless, the foundering Badalone appears to have resisted at-
tempts at reactivation even in what should have been a season more fa-
vorable to flotation on the river, and no deliveries are recorded on Bru-
nelleschi's account. Instead, on the eve of his deadline the wardens
authorized additional cartage or, if possible, traditional barge transport
at rates starting at 33 soldi per thousand weight for full cargoes.142 A
new contract issued in February for the supply of large quantities of
marble for the cupola ribs includes useful information on the cost of
transport. The contractor's price of 7 lire 10 soldi per thousand weight
included basic river transport at the rate of 32 soldi. The Opera would
cover the difference of higher rates demanded by the bargemen for the
Arno tract from Pisa to Signa, if previously authorized, and it would
also pay the additional cost whenever it ordered land transport.143 This
continued to be a common occurrence: a series of payments to carters
cover 38,476 pounds of marble delivered from late January through
February, and an authorization to apply the usual price to some of
141 Cupola , II-2-1, cc. 54ve, 59b, respectively 2 April and 7 May 1427.
142 Cupola , II-2-1, c. 76d, 14 January 1428. This is a problematic document, in which the
rate of 4 lire 10 soldi is described as corresponding to a cartload ( carrata ) rather than a thou-
sand weight, probably a lapsus on the part of the notary. On the elusive weight of a carrata of
marble, see Klapisch-Zuber 1969, 72-73; she describes cartloads of upwards of 2,000 pounds
in this period, defined as what a pair of oxen could draw on flat terrain, and this is confirmed
for the route along the Versilia shore from Carrara to Pisa in the Opera documents (e.g. II-4-
11, c. 68e). The capacity on the inland voyage to Florence was probably less. The considerable
difference between land and river rates (typically 90 soldi vs. 32 soldi per thousand weight)
needs to be adjusted for the cost of land carriage from the Signa port to the Opera, documen-
ted as "1. 2 s. 5" (45 soldi) per carrata (e.g. VIII-1-2, c. 27vb). Furthermore, the cost of barge
transport for small loads could soar to 4 lire (80 soldi) per thousand weight according to the
authorization of 14 January cited above.
143 Cupola , II-2-1, c. 77vf, 9 February 1428, awarded to Checco d'Andrea Fraschetta and
Meo di Cecchino for the supply of 900,000 pounds of white marble over a period of 19
months. Similar terms are to be found in a commission awarded to three separate contractors
in June 1433, where the base price of 7 lire 10 soldi per thousand weight would be increased by
2 lire 6 soldi (3 1 %) if the marble had to be shipped from Pisa to Florence by cart, resulting in a
total delivered price of 9 lire 16 soldi: II-2-1, c. 20 le.
93

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MARGARET HAINES
the newly contracted supplies mentions the low water level in the Arno
that made this necessary.144 In May 1428 the Opera issued a new ulti-
matum to Brunelleschi to send the marble stranded around Empoli and
Castelfranco by barge, after which time the Opera would do so di-
rectly.145 The rains must have come at last, because the Florentine cap-
tain in Pisa was instructed to enjoin the bargemen there to load marble
or, if carrying salt - always the competing cargo - to include at least a
few pieces of the precious stone.146 But rain or shine, the Badalone mar-
ble seems to have remained mired at midpoint, and only in October
1428 was land transport authorized at Filippo's expense.147
While the struggle to secure a regular supply of high-quality marble
to the cupola worksite continued with the familiar alternation of river
and roadways in the following years, the matter of Brunelleschi's open
account seems to have been discreetly set aside until the end of 1432,
when two operai were empowered to review the final reckoning of the
venture.148 The new complete edition of this act reveals that the archi-
tect had not only transported some of the marble in his original con-
tract to three points along the lower Arno valley, Castelfranco, Fucec-
chio, and Empoli, but had also delivered part of it to the Opera in
Florence. The price to be allowed for thousand weight consigned
was the first and highest offer, 4 lire 14 soldi per thousand. The surviv-
ing documentation does not enable monitoring of the Opera's income
in this period, including redemption or repayment of the 55 -florin ad-
vances, which Filippo had regularly declared as deductions from his ca-
pital worth in his tax declarations of July 1427, when they were fresh in
his pocket, and in January 1431, when he had returned to supervision
144 Cupola , II-4-12, cc. 72vd-73h, 13 April 1428, payments to carters at 4 lire 10 soldi per
thousand weight; II-2-1, c. 80e: 19 March 1428, decision to calculate that price for land car-
riage from Pisa to the Opera of Fraschetta's marble "propter penuriam acque Arni." Most
of this marble could have been loaded on a single scafa of the bargeman Lorenzo di Tingo,
documented in 1435 as having carried 35,000 pounds: VIII- 1-01, c. 27vb. In Michelangelo's
time the trip up the Arno of a marble-laden scafa is recorded as taking from seven to thirty
days: cf. Wallace 1994, 54-62.
145 Cupola , II-2-1, c. 83 vf.
146 Cupola , II-2-1, 84c. A partial payment of 40 lire for barge transport is recorded: II-4-
12, c. 78ve.
147 Cupola , II-2-1, c. 92g: "qui marmor est in Commune Castri Franchi et Empuli." Once
again, however, it seems that not even the Opera was able to move the stranded blocks, for no
payments to carters indicate such halfway trips.
148 Cupola , II-2-1, c. 19 lva.
94

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MYTH AND MANAGEMENT
of the cupola after the Lucca fiasco. On the second occasion he al

declared 15 florins still due to the contractor, Bertino di Piero, for ma
ble lost in the Arno.149 At the time of his next report in May 1433, F
lippo must have settled with the Opera, which is no longer mentione
but he now owed 8 florins to a bargeman and 4 to a carter for trans
porting marble from Empoli, probably the last of the lot to be s
vaged.150 The greatest loss of the Badalone enterprise must, however
have been the investment in the vessel itself, whether wrecked or ru
aground, and the disgrace and disappointment over the failure of th
much- vaunted invention.
This is not the place to deal with the possible reconstruction of th
Badalone, except to point out that the complete documentation ind
cates that it was conceived to negotiate the Arno even when the shal
low-draft barges could not in the driest summer months, althoug
once blocked, it could not proceed even when traditional vessels were
able to make the trip.151 The possibility that Brunelleschi's inventio
entailed an amphibious structure has been suggested on several occ
sions and is the subject of a study completed with the support of th
new Opera del Duomo documentation.152 Filippo shared the passio
for hydraulic engineering and inventive aquatic vessels with the scho
of early Sienese engineers, epitomized by Mariano di Jacopo Tacco
This quixotic inventor's notebooks contain designs of boats equipp
with wheels as well as the transcript of an inflamed declaration by Br
nelleschi concerning the necessity of shunning ignorant detractors,
149 Fabriczy 1892, 510-516. His liabilities in 1431 also included 16 florins for the rent
bed that he lost in the Lucca flood.
150 Fabriczy 1892, 516-519.
151 These considerations alone rule out the attempt to visualize the Badalone as th
round-keeled boat with paddle wheels, unsuitable for the Arno shallows, portrayed in a L
nardo-school drawing (Uffizi, Gabinetto di Disegni a Stampe 4085 A), a proposal that has e
joyed a certain fortune in the literature. See, for example, Galluzzi 1991, 187, entry I.b.4
lustration on 186). Similar objections can be raised against the reconstruction proposed
Massimo Ricci, who envisioned a barge like those used in the Arno in the early years of
last century, outfitted with paddle wheels and windmill power inspired on the Leonardes
sketch. Ricci' s model was exhibited at the Palazzo Medici Riccardi in Florence in 2003 and
in Valencia in 2004 (illustrated and discussed in the catalogue of the latter occasion: R
2004, 178, 180, 188-189), and has been much publicized since. Ricci assumed that al
100,000 pounds of marble were shipped in a single load, while, as we have seen, Brunellesc
contract gave him two separate deadlines for half the total, which could have been transport
in multiple shipments.
152 Nanni and Vestri 2011, 68-75.
95

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MARGARET HAINES
ways ready to turn around and plagiarize the very ideas they have ridic-
uled.153 Such a profile of Filippo resonates with the Manettian tale of
interpersonal strife, but also with the Opera's ultimate tribute to the
architect in his tomb monument, which centered not only on the archi-
tect's constructed achievements but also on the intelligence and techni-
cal creativity that enabled them, through innovative machinery that
would be admired and copied by followers of the stature of Leonardo
da Vinci.
Although even the failed inventions may have been an expression of
genius, they certainly did not bring honor and profit to the Florentine
Commune nor indeed to their creator. The cupola of Santa Maria del
Fiore, on the other hand, achieved both of these glorious goals (Fig. 12).
I submit that the Opera support structure available to, if not to say
forced upon, the architect at the Florentine cathedral was the factor
that determined the difference. The disciplined and deliberate building
site became in a sense a vast laboratory where new problems could be
tackled under controllable conditions. There, Brunelleschi's ingenious
hoist and cranes did not collapse or betray the workers. His carefully
considered working platforms protected the builders from all but
one fatal accident. His ideas, constantly refined during their application
in the company of intelligent and experienced craftsmen, just as the
first building program had foreseen, were pursued prudently and pa-
tiently to the optatum finem of the completed, successfully self-support-
ing vault. The documentation of the Florentine Opera del Duomo is
our "virtual" scaffolding to the understanding how the myth of this
achievement was constructed.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cupola = Gli anni della Cupola 1417-1436 : Archivio digitale delle fonti dell'Opera
Santa Maria del Fiore, edited by Margaret Haines. © Opera di Santa Maria
Fiore, Florence, 2009 and 2012. Same data in English-language version, The Ye
of the Cupola 1417-1436: Digital Archive of the Sources of the Opera di Santa M
del Fiore.
www.operaduomo.firenze.it/cupola (Florence, Italian)
153 Galluzzi 1996, Introduzione, esp. 11-56, and for Mariano's interview of Filippo,
For the notebooks of Taccola, the relevant editions are 1969 (Beck) and 1972 (Prager
Scaglia).
96

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Fig. 1. Florence, cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in the Florentine cityscape, view from the south.

139.47.18.255 on Thu, 23 Nov 2023 16:42:46 +00:00
Fig. 2. Lorenzo Ghiberti, self-portrait, gilded bronze. East doors of the baptistery,
Florence.
Fig. 3. Andrea di Lazzero Cavalcanti, commemorative portrait of Filippo Brunelleschi,

marble. Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence.
Fig. 4. Salary payments to "Filippo di ser Brunellescho sopra ghoverno della tribuna mag-
giore" and to "Lorenzo di Bartolucio orafo el quale àne a prochurare sopra la chupóla mag-
giore" for the first trimester of 1427. Brunelleschi's salary amounts to 25 florins, Ghiberti's
to 9 florins. Ultraviolet photograph of flooded book of allocations, Archivio dell'Opera di
Santa Maria del Fiore, II-4-12, c. 40v.

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Fig. 5. Cupola section with essential documented chronology.

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Fig. 6. A roll of workers for the summer of 1423 shows (1) Battista d'Antonio and Perfetto di Gio-
vanni at the top of the list with their customary high daily wages of 20 soldi, followed by (2) Antonio
di Bartolino da Vercelli with his exceptional wage of 25 soldi. The separate listing of the personnel
for the quarry at Trassinaia is led by (3) Jacopo di Sandro with 21 soldi. Archivio dell'Opera di Santa
Maria del Fiore, II-1-82, cc. 11-llv.

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Fig. 7. Santa Maria del Fiore, protruding stone beams, forming
part of the first stone chain embedded in the pietra forte
masonry at the base of the cupola, visible where the marble
frieze was never executed.
Fig. 8. Santa Maria del Fiore, view of northeast segment of

closing ring with stone components. On left, opening to access
stairway between dome shells, flanked by oculus opening onto
lateral section. Center, door to adjacent segment with inter-
locking lintel and jambs. Far right, opening to eye of the lan-
tern area, with interlocking joint visible. Above, radial slabs
forming ceiling of closing ring and base of lantern.

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Fig. 9. Wooden model forms ( modani ) for oversized rectangular and corner bricks {quadroni). Mu-
seo dell'Opera del Duomo, Florence.
Fig. 10. Santa Maria del Fiore, transition from stone to brick masonry above the doorway of the first
walkway of the cupola's south segment, visible on unplastered pier surface.
Fig. 11. Santa Maria del Fiore, herringbone brickwork in the upper reaches of the dome at the cor-
ner between the north and northeast segments, temporarily exposed during the restoration of the
frescoes (1988-95).

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Fig. 12. Santa Maria del Fiore, cupola viewed from the west.

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MYTH AND MANAGEMENT
www.operaduomo.firenze.it/cupola/home_eng.html (Florence, English)

duomo.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/home.html (Berlin, Italian)
duomo.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/home_eng.html (Berlin, English)
Baldinucci, Filippo, Vita di Filippo di ser Brunellesco architetto fiorentino , edited
Domenico Mořeni, Florence, 1812.
Baldinucci, Filippo and Francesco Saverio, "Vita di Filippo Brunellesco scultor
architetto fiorentino", in Zibaldone baldinucciano , edited by Bruno Santi, 1:257
319; commentary 2:526-527, Florence, 1980-81.
Balestracci, Duccio, "Produzione ed uso del mattone a Siena nel Medioevo", i
La brique antique et médiéval : Production et commercialisation d'un matériau ,
edited by Patrick Boucheron, Henri Broise and Yvon Thébert, 417-28, Ro
me, 2000.
Bardi, Luciano, Berta Leggeri, Valentino Vasarri, Roberto Franchi, Fabio
Fratini and Carlo Manganelli del Fà, Indagine sperimentale sui materiali costi-
tuenti la cupola di Santa Maria del Fiore , Florence, 1986.
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MYTH AND MANAGEMENT IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF BRUNELLESCHI'S CUPOLA

Author(s): MARGARET HAINES

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41781523

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ment to Brunelleschi regards only the finishing wood components of his

7 Guasti 1857; Saalman 1980. An exception to the neglect of Saalman's monograph in

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a kilnman for bricks, provides a telling example of the "discovery" of a

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The documentation contained in The Years of the Cupola editio

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authors and audiences endowed them with verisimilitude.12 In this

The cupola supervisors

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supervisor with Brunelleschi for 18 years, always at the same salary.

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program's ratification in February 1426, a new election of the two cu-

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of Brunelleschi, nor in the ever more heroic reworking of this source by

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After the completion of the wood chain in 1424, attention turned to

39 Cupola , II-4-9, c. lOlva.

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prompted a countermand, restricting the consignment of bricks and

43 Cupola , II-2-1, c. 143 va, 15 June 1431.

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unrealized disappearance of Ghiberti from the payroll in July 1433

Another rich category of documentation yielded by the new edition

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Semester Total workers Opera Quarry ^ y Observations Source in Cupo

1420-21 winter - - - book missing

1421-22 winter 55 37 18 incl. manovali II-1-79, c. 35vb

1423 summer 57 40 17 excl. manovali II-1-82, c. lib

1426 summer 55 43 12 excl. manovali II-2-1, c. 30a

1426-27 winter 63 50 13 excl. manovali II-2-1, c. 44g

1428 summer 71 - - excl. manovali II-2-1, c. 82vc

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1429 summer 76 - - excl. manovali II-2-1, c. 104 ve

1430 summer 82 50 32 excl. manovali II-2-1 c. 125g

1431-32 winter 51 41 10 (?) excl. manovali II-2-1, c. 150f

1433 summer - - - II-2-1 neg. for rolls

1435 summer - - - II-2-1 neg.

1436 summer - - - II-2-1 neg.

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However, the first factor that needs to be considered in the analysis

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There is no assurance that this semester was typical, nor is it pos-

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the present essay. However, a comparison of the first book, covering

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Calls for economy in the workforce conspicuously accompanied

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way on the reinforcing chains in the nave, treated as an integral part o

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Manetti's whole story of Filippo's astute taming of the presumptuous

™ Cupola , II- 1-77, c. 34a.

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